•NRLF 


3    Efib    Mflb 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

DAVIS 


/*££ 


applrtons' 
l?i0tonc 


HORACE 
GREELEY 


APPLETONS'  SERIES  OF 

HISTORIC     LIVES. 


Father  Marquette. 

By  REUBEN  GOLD  THWAITES,  Editor  of  "The 
Jesuit  Relations."  Third  Edition. 

Daniel  Boone. 

By  REUBEN  GOLD  THWAITES.    Third  Edition. 

Horace  Greeley. 

By  WILLIAM  A.  LINN,  for  many  years  Man 
aging  Editor  of  the  "New  York  Evening 
Post." 

Sir  William  Johnson. 

By  AUGUSTUS  C.  BUELL,  Author  of  "Paul 
Jones,  Founder  of  the  American  Navy."  [In 
preparation .  ] 

Champlain. 

By  EDWIN  ASA  Dix.     [In  preparation.] 

Sam  Houston. 

By  Prof.  GEORGE  P.  GARRISON,  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Texas.  [In  preparation.] 

Sir  William  Pepperell. 

By  NOAH  BROOKS.     [In  preparation.] 


Each  12mo.    Illustrated.    $I.OO  net. 
Postage,  10  cents  additional. 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


HORACE  GEEELEY  IN  1872. 


Founder  and  Editor  of  The  New  York 
Tribune 


WILLIAM  ALEXANDER  LINN 

Author  of  "  The  Story  of  the 
Mormons  " 

r 

Illustrated 


NEW  YOHK 

Slpplcton  anb  Companp 

1903 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Published  March,  1903 


PKEFACE 


HOBACE  GBEELEY  is  remembered  by  the 
men  of  his  own  day  as  a  great  editor  and  a 
somewhat  eccentric  genius.  While  we  like  to 
hear  about  a  man's  personal  characteristics, 
in  studying  his  biography  the  lessons  of  a 
life  like  Greeley's  are  to  be  found  in  his 
works.  When  a  "gawky  "  country  lad,  with 
a  limited  education  and  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  the  printer's  trade,  comes  to  the  princi 
pal  city  of  the  land  with  a  few  dollars  in  his 
pocket  and  a  single  suit  of  clothes,  and  fights 
a  fight  the  result  of  which  is  the  founding  of 
the  most  influential  newspaper  of  his  day, 
and  the  acquirement  of  a  reputation  as  its 
editor  which  secures  for  him  a  nomination 
for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States — in 
such  a  man's  career  there  must  be  material 
for  useful  study.  And  the  place  to  study 
Horace  Greeley  is  in  his  newspapers.  He 
made  these  newspapers;  he  gave  them  their 
character;  and,  in  doing  so,  he  left  on  them 
his  mental  photograph. 

v 


Horace  Greeley 


Such  a  study  is  most  interesting.  No 
other  editor  has  ever  given  opportunity  for 
it.  Beginning  his  editorial  labors  when  both 
the  tariff  and  the  slavery  questions  were  qui 
escent,  we  find  in  the  files  of  the  New  Yorker, 
the  Jeffersonian,  the  Log  Cabin,  and  the 
New  York  Tribune,  in  order,  an  expression 
of  the  growing  national  interest  in  these  sub 
jects,  and  a  discussion  of  them  which  pic 
tures,  better  than  any  mere  recital  of  results 
can  do,  the  building  up  of  a  public  sentiment 
that  had  so  far-reaching  results.  This  is  es 
pecially  true  of  the  slavery  question ;  because 
Greeley  was  not  an  early  Abolitionist — not 
an  Abolitionist  at  all,  in  the  technical  sense. 
He  was  one  of  those  who  were  content  to 
leave  the  South  alone  with  its  slavery  as  that 
institution  was  defined  in  the  Federal  Consti 
tution  and  restricted  by  the  Missouri  Com 
promise.  But  he  was  foremost  in  the  ranks 
of  those  who  called  for  the  observance  of  that 
compromise,  who  refused  to  concede  to  the 
South  new  slave  territory,  and  who  assisted 
in  arousing  the  national  conscience  to  the 
pitch  that  made  an  armed  attempt  to  save 
the  Union  in  the  sixties  a  possibility. 

Why  this  valiant  warrior  stepped  aside 
into  the  ranks  of  the  timid  and  the  compro 
misers  when  the  issue  was  drawn,  each  reader 

vi 


Preface 

may  decide  for  himself.  Why  he  was  not  con 
tent  with  his  position  and  influence  as  an  edi 
tor,  and  sacrificed  a  good  deal  of  consistency 
in  an  effort  to  reach  the  office  of  President, 
may  also  be  left  to  the  reader's  opinion.  His 
weaknesses  throughout  his  editorial  career 
are  almost  as  marked  as  his  strength,  and  a 
lack  of  foresight  often  played  havoc  with  his 
judgment.  An  editor  of  large  experience 
said,  on  the  occasion  of  his  death:  "The  ed 
itor  of  a  daily  paper  is  the  object  of  un 
ceasing  adulation  from  a  crowd  of  those  who 
shrink  from  fighting  the  slow  and  doubtful 
battle  of  life  in  the  open  field,  and  crave  the 
kindly  shelter  of  editorial  plaudits,  '  puffs/ 
and  '  mentions ' ;  and  he  finds  this  adulation 
offered  freely,  and  by  all  classes  and  condi 
tions,  without  the  least  reference  to  his  char 
acter  or  talents  or  antecedents.  What  won 
der  if  it  turns  the  heads  of  unworthy  men, 
and  begets  in  them  some  of  the  vices  of  the 
despots — their  unscrupulousness,  their  cruel 
ty,  and  their  impudence ;  what  wonder,  too,  if 
it  should  have  thrown  off  his  balance  a  man 
like  Mr.  Greeley,  whose  head  was  not  strong, 
whose  education  was  imperfect,  and  whose 
self-confidence  had  been  fortified  by  a  brave 
and  successful  struggle  with  adversity." 
Of  Greeley's  honesty  and  purity  of  motive 
vii 


Horace  Greeley 


there  was  never  any  question.  In  his  days 
of  poverty  no  suggestions  of  a  Weed  that  he 
remain  quiet  about  some  matter  in  which  he 
believed,  but  which  was  not  on  the  popular 
side,  had  any  influence  with  him.  In  the  days 
of  the  slavery  contest,  when  the  business  in 
terests  of  his  city  were  ready  for  almost  any 
concessions  to  Southern  customers,  he  defied 
the  "priests  of  the  god  Cotton,"  as  he  called 
them,  and  rebuked  them  in  most  scathing 
terms.  When  the  war  was  over,  and  the  ques 
tions  of  adjustment  and  reconstruction  were 
to  be  solved,  he  took  a  stand  immediately 
and  openly  in  favor  of  pardon  and  renewed 
brotherhood  which  cost  him  the  favor  of 
thousands  of  old  associates,  and  lost  him  an 
election  to  the  United  States  Senate.  How 
ever  much  his  judgment  swayed,  it  never 
swayed  "on  that  side  fortune  leans." 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Greeley*s  early  years  and  first  experiences  as  a  compositor: 
New  York  city  in  1831— Parentage  and  farm  life— 
His  schooling— Opinions  of  a  college  education — Ap 
prenticeship  in  Vermont— Appearance  and  dress- 
Views  of  country  journalism — Amusements — A  non- 
user  of  tobacco  and  liquor — Arriral  in  New  York  city  .  1 

CHAPTER  H 

Discouragements  in  New  York  city :  Looking  for  a  job— 
His  first  employment — Setting  up  in  business — Sources 
of  income — How  the  New  Yorker  was  started — Early 
journalism  in  the  United  States — Scope  of  the  new  paper 
— Greeley  as  a  poet — Subjects  of  editorial  discussion — 
Financial  riews — His  straits  for  money .  .  .  .21 

CHAPTER  TTT 

Thurlow  Weed's  discorery :  What  attracted  him  to  Gree 
ley— Their  first  meeting— The  Jeffersonian  and  the  Log 
Cabin — Their  character  and  features — Greeley*s  indus 
try — Poor  business  management — Last  of  the  New 
Yorker 40 

CHAPTER  IV 

Founding  of  the  Tribune:  Greeley*s  preparation — Views 
on  good  journalism — Local  competition — The  first  num- 

ix 


Horace  Greeley 


PAGK 

ber — Growth  of  business — McElrath  as  publisher — Gree 
ley's  courage  in  printing  the  news — Attacks  and  coun 
ter-attacks—The  Cooper  libel  suits— Profits  ...  56 

CHAPTER  V 

Sources  of  the  Tribune's  influence:  Its  excellence  as  a 
newspaper — Some  of  Greeley's  editorial  associates — 
Getting  news  by  express — Value  of  Greeley's  "  isms  " — 
His  connection  with  Fourierism — Later  views  on  social 
ism — The  Graham  diet — Margaret  Fuller — What  he  be 
lieved  about  spiritual  rappings — His  devotion  to  farm 
topics — In  the  lecture  field — Some  views  on  poets — His 
one  term  in  Congress — The  attention  he  attracted — His 
general  supervision  of  his  paper — An  easy  target  for 
borrowers — Two  editorial-room  reminiscences  .  .  71 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  tariff  question :  Greeley's  early  sympathies — Legisla 
tion  between  1832  and  1844— A  statement  of  his  tariff 
principles— His  work  for  Clay  in  1844— Its  effect  on 
his  health— Desire  to  try  the  issue  four  years  later  .  110 

CHAPTER  VH 

Greeley's  part  in  the  antislavery  contest:  Acknowledg 
ments  of  his  influence — Why  he  was  not  an  early  Abo 
litionist — His  opinion  of  conservatism — Status  of  the 
slavery  question  during  his  early  years — Need  of  arous 
ing  the  Northern  conscience — Illustrations  of  public 
feeling— Value  of  the  Tribune  as  an  ally— Greeley's 
views  as  set  forth  in  the  New  Yorker — His  aroused  feel 
ings—Influence  of  the  Texas  question— Effect  of  his 
devotion  to  Clay— Defense  of  Clay  as  a  slaveholder— 
The  Tribune's  position  stated — Disgust  over  Taylor's 
nomination— Defiance  of  the  "business  interests"  of 
New  York  city— Position  regarding  the  Compromise  of 
1850— Rejection  of  the  fugitive  slave  law— No  yielding 
X 


Contents 

MM 

to  the  "  god  Cotton  "—The  Kansas-Nebraska  struggle 
and  the  John  Brown  raid— Organization  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  .  ......  123 

CHAPTER  VHI 

During  the  civil  war:  Greeley's  weakness  in  a  national 
crisis — His  ambition  to  be  Governor  of  New  York — The 
story  of  his  break  with  Seward  and  Weed — Lack  of 
confidence  in  the  Republican  party  movement — Course 
in  the  Chicago  convention  of  1860 — Weed's  retaliation 
— Defense  of  the  right  of  secession — The  "  On  to  Rich 
mond  "  cry — Letter  to  Lincoln  after  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run — Negotiations  with  Mercier — The  "Prayer  of 
Twenty  Millions  " — Opposition  to  Lincoln's  renomina- 
tion— The  Niagara  Falls  negotiations— A  suppressed 
editorial — Final  appreciation  of  the  President  .  .  170 

CHAPTER  IX 

Greeley's  presidential  campaign  and  death :  The  changed 
attitude  of  the  Tribune  toward  Grant's  administration 
— Causes  of  Republican  discontent — Carpet-baggers 
and  Kuklux — The  demand  for  universal  amnesty — 
Greeley's  leadership  in  that  cause — An  opponent  of 
President  Johnson — Bondsman  for  Jefferson  Davis — 
His  Richmond  speech — The  Liberal  movement  in  Mis 
souri — Forerunnings  of  the  Cincinnati  convention — 
Sumner's  influence— The  demand  for  tariff  reform— 
Greeley's  alliance  with  the  Liberals — Proceedings  of 
the  Cincinnati  convention — How  Greeley's  nomination 
was  brought  about — His  retirement  from  the  Tribune 
control — Progress  of  the  campaign — His  defeat  and  its 
effect  on  him — His  last  hours  .  •  .  •  214 


XI 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTKATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 

Horace  Greeley        .....         Frontispiece 

Horace  Greeley's  birthplace 4 

Park  Row  in  1830 22 

Facsimile  extract  from  the  New  Yorker       ...  27 

Greeley's  house  at  Chappaqua 92 

Specimen  of  Greeley's  handwriting       ....  181 

Newspaper  Row  in  1870 224 

Statue  in  Greeley  Square 257 


Xlll 


HORACE  GREELEY 


CHAPTER  I 

HIS  EABLY  YEABS  AND  FIRST  EMPLOYMENT   AS  A 
COMPOSITOB 

THE  country  lad  who  went  to  New  York 
city  in  the  summer  of  1831  to  seek  his  fortune, 
arrived  in  what  would  now  be  called  a  good- 
sized  town.  The  population  of  Manhattan  Is 
land  (below  the  Harlem  River)  was  only 
202,589  in  1830,  as  compared  with  the  1,850,- 
093  shown  by  the  census  of  1900;  the  total 
population  of  the  district  now  embraced  in 
Greater  New  York  was  then  only  242,278, 
while  in  1900  it  was  3,437,202.  The  total 
assessed  valuation  of  the  city,  real  and  per 
sonal,  in  1833,  was  only  $166,491,542;  in 
1900  it  was,  for  the  Borough  of  Manhattan, 
$2,853,363,382.  No  railroad  then  landed  pas 
sengers  or  freight  in  the  city,  no  ocean  steam 
ers  departed  from  the  docks,  and  there  was 
no  telegraphic  communication.  Thirteenth 
Street  marked  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
settled  part  of  Manhattan  Island,  and  al- 

2  1 


Horace  Greeley 


though,  in  1828,  lots  from  two  to  six  miles  dis 
tant  from  the  City  Hall  were  valued  at  from 
only  $60  to  $700  each,  more  than  one  writer 
of  the  day  was  ready  to  concede  that,  owing 
to  advantages  of  cheaper  land  on  the  oppo 
site  shores  of  Long  Island  and  New  Jersey, 
newcomers  were  likely  to  settle  there  before 
the  city  could  count  on  a  larger  growth.  We 
get  an  idea  of  the  rural  condition  of  the  city 
in  the  announcement  that  the  post-office  (in 
Exchange  Place)  was  open  only  from  9  A.  M. 
to  sunset;  that  the  "elegant  [dry  goods]  em 
porium  "  of  Peabody  &  Co.  occupied  a  front 
age  of  two  windows  under  the  American 
Hotel,  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Broadway 
and  Barclay  Street,  the  residences  of  Phillip 
Hone  and  another  prominent  citizen  being  sit 
uated  in  the  same  block,  and  that  Greenwich 
Village  had  not  yet  lost  its  character  as  a 
summer  resort ;  and,  five  years  later,  the  New 
Yorker,  in  an  article  setting  forth  the  growth 
of  the  city,  said,  "  Her  streets,  lacking  more 
direct  appliances,  have  been  sun-dried  and 
rain-washed  till  they  are  passably,  if  hardly, 
respectable." 

This  was  the  city  on  one  of  whose  wharves 
an  Albany  boat  landed  Horace  Greeley  one 
summer  morning.  His  equipment  for  a  strug 
gle  for  a  living  among  entire  strangers  he 

2 


His  Early  Years 


has  thus  described :  "  I  was  twenty  years  old 
the  preceding  February;  tall,  slender,  pale, 
and  plain ;  with  ten  dollars  in  my  pocket,  sum 
mer  clothing  worth  perhaps  as  much  more, 
nearly  all  on  my  back,  and  a  decent  knowl 
edge  of  so  much  of  the  art  of  printing  as  a 
boy  will  usually  learn  in  the  office  of  a  coun 
try  newspaper." 

The  Greeleys,  for  generations  back,  had 
not  known  affluence.  Of  Scotch-Irish  stock, 
some  of  them  had  emigrated  to  America  as 
early  as  1640,  and  had  fought  the  fight  for 
a  living  as  farmers  or  as  blacksmiths.  Hor 
ace's  father  Zaccheus  was  a  farmer,  and  the 
future  journalist  was  born  on  his  farm  of 
fifty  acres  five  miles  from  Amherst,  N.  H., 
on  February  3,  1811.  With  the  best  of  man 
agement  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  obtain 
from  such  a  farm  more  than  a  living  for  the 
owner's  family.  The  Greeleys  did  work  hard, 
the  mother  sharing  with  her  husband  such 
labor  as  raking  and  loading  hay,  besides 
doing  housework  and  carding  and  spinning, 
and  Horace,  when  five  years  old,  gave  such 
assistance  as  riding  the  horse  to  plow  before 
going  to  school  for  the  day,  and  killing  wire- 
worms  in  the  corn.  But  the  father  was  an 
easy-going  rather  than  an  energetic  man.  In 
those  days  whisky,  rum,  and  cider  were 

3 


Horace  Greeley 


served  even  at  the  ordination  of  clergymen  in 
parts  of  New  England,  and  Zaccheus  Gree 
ley  was  never  behind  his  neighbors  in  acts  of 
hospitality.  He  was,  his  son  has  testified,  "  a 
bad  manager,"  and  always  in  debt,  and  his 
farm  did  not  enable  him  to  gain  on  his  in 
debtedness.  In  the  hope  of  improving  mat 
ters,  he  let  his  own  farm  to  a  younger  brother 
and  rented  a  larger  one  near  by.  But  the 
brother  could  not  meet  his  engagements,  and 
the  family  moved  back  in  1819.  Sickness  en 
sued,  a  speculation  in  lumber  proved  disas 
trous,  and  the  end  came  in  the  summer  of 
1820,  when  the  home  farm  was  seized  by  the 
sheriff  at  the  instance  of  several  creditors, 
the  father  took  his  departure  to  escape  arrest 
for  debt,  and  the  farm  and  crops,  when  sold, 
left  nothing  for  the  wife  and  children. 
"  When  night  fell,"  wrote  the  son  in  later 
years,  "  we  were  as  bankrupt  a  family  as  well 
could  be."  Horace  then  had  a  brother,  eight 
years  old,  and  two  sisters  of  six  and  four 
years;  another  sister  was  born  in  1822. 

In  the  following  January  the  Greeleys, 
with  their  effects  packed  in  a  two-horse  sleigh, 
joined  the  father  in  Westhaven,  Vt.,  where 
he  had  hired  a  house  at  a  rental  of  $16  a  year. 
There  for  two  years  the  elder  Greeley  worked 
by  the  day  at  such  jobs  as  he  could  secure, 

4 


* 


Horace  Greeley's  birthplace. 


His  Early  Years 


the  largest  of  these  being  the  clearing  of  a 
fifty-acre  tract  of  land.  The  two  boys  at 
tended  school  in  the  winter  months,  but  as 
sisted  their  father  in  his  laborious  tasks  the 
rest  of  the  time.  Cutting  down  trees  was  not 
the  work  for  which  boys  of  eight  and  ten  were 
fitted ;  but  they  did  what  they  could  at  that, 
and  carried  off  the  brush  and  drove  the  team. 
In  the  early  spring  they  chopped  away,  stand 
ing  in  slush  knee-deep,  and  in  summer  they 
endured  at  night  the  torture  of  having  the 
lances  of  thistles  dug  out  of  their  festered 
feet  which  they  could  not  afford  to  protect 
with  shoes.  Seven  dollars  an  acre,  and  half 
the  wood,  was  to  have  been  the  recompense  for 
this  labor;  but  before  the  account  was  ad 
justed  their  employer  died,  and  a  part  of  even 
this  small  emolument  they  never  received. 
Next,  the  father,  again  with  the  sons'  assist 
ance,  tried  farming  and  running  a  sawmill  on 
shares  at  the  same  time,  and  later  he  united 
land-clearing  and  farming — all  without  finan 
cial  success.  This  was  the  last  of  Horace 
Greeley's  farm  work  as  a  boy.  He  had  found 
in  it  "neither  scope  for  expanding  faculties, 
incitement  to  constant  growth  in  knowledge, 
nor  a  spur  to  generous  ambition."  But  he 
believed  in  farming  on  business  principles, 
and  it  was  his  experience  in  these  early  years 

5 


Horace  Greeley 


which  led  him,  when  in  command  of  a  great 
newspaper,  to  devote  so  much  thought  to  a 
higher  agriculture,  and  to  write  and  speak  so 
many  words  in  behalf  of  intelligent  land  cul 
ture. 

Any  one  who  visits  the  neighborhood 
where  the  early  days  of  a  man  afterward  fa 
mous  have  been  spent  will  not  fail  to  discover 
reminiscences  of  his  youthful  talent,  and  to 
unearth  venerable  predictions  of  his  future 
greatness.  This  has  been  the  case  with  Hor 
ace  Greeley,  producing  a  kind  of  biography 
which  he  himself  pronounced  "monstrously 
exaggerated  by  gossip  and  tradition."  In  his 
early  years  he  was  very  delicate,  and  the 
death  of  two  children  who  had  preceded  him 
made  his  mother  especially  tender  of  him. 
She  had  a  rare  store  of  old-country  traditions 
told  to  her  by  her  Irish  grandmother,  and  the 
child  took  an  eager  interest  in  these ;  and  an 
open  book  on  his  mother's  knees  while  she 
spun  so  attracted  him  that  when  he  was  four 
years  old  he  could  read,  and,  from  the  manner 
of  taking  his  lessons,  it  became  indifferent  to 
him  whether  the  book  was  held  sideways  or 
even  upside  down.  Before  he  was  quite  three 
years  old  he  was  sent  to  the  district  school 
from  the  house  of  his  grandfather,  which  was 
nearer  it  than  his  home,  and  this  school  he 

6 


His  Early  Years 


attended  most  of  the  winter,  and  some  of  the 
summer,  months  during  the  next  three  years. 
He  also  attended  the  district  school  while  they 
lived  in  Vermont,  as  circumstances  per 
mitted.  The  text-books  in  those  days  were 
as  primitive  as  the  teaching  and  the  disci 
pline,  embracing  Webster's  Spelling-Book 
(just  introduced),  The  American  Preceptor 
as  a  reader,  and  Bingam's  Ladies'  Accidence 
as  a  grammar.  Reviewing  his  school  days, 
in  his  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,  Greeley 
said:  "I  deeply  regret  that  such  homely  sci 
ences  as  chemistry,  geology,  and  botany  were 
never  taught.  Yet  I  am  thankful  that  algebra 
had  not  yet  been  thrust  into  our  rural  com 
mon  schools,  to  knot  the  brains  and  squander 
the  time  of  those  who  should  have  been  learn 
ing  something  of  positive  and  practical 
utility." 

Horace  was  certainly  a  precocious  child. 
He  had  read  the  Bible  through,  under  his 
mother's  guidance,  when  he  was  five  years 
old.  When  he  was  four  years  old  he  was  so 
good  a  speller  that,  in  the  weekly  matches  at 
school,  in  which  sides  were  chosen,  he  would 
easily  secure  and  retain  the  head  of  his  side, 
but  was  so  much  a  child  that  the  "choosing  " 
of  the  spellers  had  to  be  committed  to  some 
one  else,  because  he  always  selected  for  his 

7 


Horace  Greeley 


side  the  playmates  whom  he  liked  best,  with 
out  regard  to  their  spelling  ability.  All  his 
schoolfellows  testified  in  later  years  to  his 
early  love  of  books,  and  that  not  one  of  the 
few  volumes  which  the  neighborhood  afforded 
escaped  him,  and  they  recalled  also  his  inter 
est  in  the  weekly  newspaper  for  which  his 
father  subscribed.  The  first  book  that  Gree 
ley  owned  was  The  Columbian  Orator,  given 
to  him  by  an  uncle  when,  five  years  old,  he 
lay  sick  with  the  measles.  At  Westhaven, 
Vt.,  the  Greeleys  lived  near  the  house  of  the 
landowner  who  gave  them  employment,  and 
he  allowed  Horace  access  to  his  library;  and 
thus,  by  the  time  the  boy  was  fourteen  years 
old,  he  had  read  the  Arabian  Nights,  Eobin- 
son  Crusoe,  Shakespeare,  and  some  history. 

During  the  family's  last  year's  residence 
in  New  Hampshire  Horace's  repute  as  a  stu 
dent  induced  a  man  of  means  to  offer  to  send 
the  lad,  at  his  own  expense,  to  Phillips  Acad 
emy  at  Exeter,  and  afterward  to  college. 
Some  men,  after  going  through  such  strug 
gles  as  Greeley  encountered,  would  have  re 
gretted  in  later  years  the  loss  of  this  oppor 
tunity.  Greeley  did  not.  On  the  contrary, 
he  expressed  his  thanks  that  his  parents  did 
not  let  him  be  indebted  to  any  one  of  whom 
he  had  not  a  right  to  expect  such  a  favor,  and 

8 


His  Early  Years 


he  was  ever  hostile  to  the  education  furnished 
by  the  colleges  of  the  day.  To  a  young  man 
who  wrote  to  him  in  1852  for  his  advice  about 
going  to  college,  Greeley  replied,  "I  think  you 
might  better  be  learning  to  fiddle,"  and  in 
his  Busy  Life  (1868)  he  said  he  would  reply 
to  the  question,  "How  shall  I  obtain  an  educa 
tion,"  by  saying,  "Learn  a  trade  of  a  good 
master.  I  hold  firmly  that  most  boys  may 
better  acquire  the  knowledge  they  need  than 
by  spending  four  years  in  college."  In  an 
address  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of 
the  People's  College  at  Havana,  N.  Y.,  in 
1858,  he  explained,  however,  that  he  did  not 
denounce  a  classical  course  of  study,  but  only 
"protested  against  the  requirement  of  appli 
cation  to  and  proficiency  in  the  dead  lan 
guages  of  all  college  students,  regardless  of 
the  length  of  time  they  may  be  able  to  devote 
to  study,  and  of  the  course  of  life  they  medi 
tate."  The  founding  of  agricultural  and  tech 
nical  colleges,  the  opening  of  scientific  depart 
ments  in  our  classical  institutions,  and  the  de 
vice  of  optional  courses  are  all  concessions  to 
the  idea  for  which  Greeley  then  contended. 

A  lad  disgusted  with  the  hard  labor  and 
slight  remuneration  of  farming  and  land- 
clearing,  and  with  a  decided  literary  taste, 
naturally  looked,  in  those  days,  to  the  print- 

9 


Horace  Greeley 


er's  trade  as  a  congenial  occupation.  News 
papers  Greeley  had  "loved  and  devoured  " 
from  the  time  when  he  had  learned  to  read, 
and  when  he  was  eleven  years  old  he  induced 
his  father  to  accompany  him  to  a  newspaper 
office  in  Whitehall,  N.  Y.,  where  he  had  heard 
that  there  was  an  opening  for  an  apprentice. 
But  he  was  rejected  as  too  young  for  the 
place.  By  the  spring  of  1826  his  father  had 
given  up  the  fight  for  a  living  in  New  Eng 
land,  and  decided  to  carry  out  a  project  he 
had  long  had  in  mind — a  move  to  Western 
Pennsylvania.  He  bought  a  tract  of  four 
acres  in  Erie  County,  about  three  miles  from 
Clymer,  N.  Y.,  on  which  was  a  log  cabin  with 
a  leaky  roof,  in  a  wilderness,  where  the  woods 
abounded  with  wild  animals,  and  the  forest 
growth  was  so  heavy  that  he  and  his  younger 
son  were  a  month  in  clearing  an  acre.  By 
additional  purchases  he  in  time  increased  his 
holding  to  some  three  hundred  acres.  The  life 
of  the  family  there  was  a  discouraging  one, 
and  Horace  says  he  never  saw  the  old  smile 
on  his  mother's  face  from  the  day  she  entered 
that  log  cabin  to  the  day  of  her  death  in  1855. 
That  spring,  before  the  family  moved, 
Horace  saw  an  advertisement,  stating  that  an 
apprentice  was  wanted  in  the  office  of  the 
Northern  Spectator  at  East  Poultney,  Vt., 
10 


His  Early  Years 


and  he  at  once  applied  for  the  place.  In  all 
his  early  applications  for  work  his  personal 
appearance  was  an  obstacle  to  his  success. 
His  figure  was  tall  and  slender,  and  his  head 
large  and  covered  with  a  growth  of  yellowish, 
tow-colored  hair,  so  light  that  it  seemed  al 
most  white  with  age.  "Gawky"  would  de 
scribe  his  general  aspect.  His  carelessness 
about  dress,  which  was  a  personal  character 
istic  in  after-life,  and  which  he  was  some 
times  accused  of  cultivating  with  a  view  to 
effect,1  began  with  his  boyhood,  partly  be- 

1  In  his  controversy  with  Cooper,  the  novelist,  over  the  lat- 
ter's  libel  suits,  in  the  early  days  of  the  Tribune,  Greeley  printed 
a  report  of  an  imaginary  argument  by  Cooper  in  court,  in 
which  he  made  Cooper  thus  allude  to  his  appearance  : 
"Fenimore — 'Well,  then,  your  Honor,  I  offer  to  prove  by 
this  witness  that  the  plaintiff  is  tow-headed,  and  half  bald  at 
that  ;  he  is  long-legged,  gaunt,  and  most  cadaverous  of 
visage — ergo,  homely.  ...  I  have  evidence  to  prove  the  said 
plaintiff  slouching  in  dress  ;  goes  bent  like  a  hoop,  and  so 
rocking  in  gait  that  he  walks  on  both  sides  of  the  street  at 
once.'" 

When,  in  1844,  Colonel  James  Watson  Webb,  in  the 
Courier  and  Enquirer,  accused  Greeley  of  seeking  notoriety 
by  his  oddity  in  dress,  the  Tribune  retorted  that  its  editor 
had  been  dressed  better  than  any  of  his  assailants  could  be  if 
they  paid  their  debts,  adding  "that  he  ever  affected  eccen 
tricity  is  most  untrue  ;  and  certainly  no  costume  he  ever 
appeared  in  would  create  such  a  sensation  on  Broadway  as 
that  which  James  Watson  Webb  would  have  worn  but  for  the 
clemency  of  Governor  Seward  " — an  allusion  to  Webb's  sen 
tence  for  fighting  a  duel. 

11 


Horace  Greeley 


cause  lie  had  no  money  with  which  to  buy 
good  clothes,  and  partly  because  he  was  in 
different  in  the  matter.  A  tattered  hat,  a  shirt 
and  trousers  of  homespun  material,  and  the 
coarsest  of  shoes,  without  stockings,  sufficed 
for  his  summer  costume,  and  when,  on  his 
arrival  in  New  York  city,  he  added  a  linen 
roundabout,  his  appearance  was  so  amusing 
that  the  boys  jeered  at  him  on  the  streets. 
The  business  manager  of  the  Northern 
Spectator,  when  Horace  asked  him,  "Do  you 
want  a  boy  to  learn  the  trade?  "  thought  it 
strange  that  so  unpromising  a  subject  should 
have  conceived  the  idea  of  becoming  a  printer. 
But  he  found  the  lad  intelligent,  and  was  told 
by  him  that  he  "had  read  some,"  and  that  he 
understood  what  he  had  read ;  so  he  sent  him 
to  the  foreman.  The  latter  also  changed  a 
first  unfavorable  impression  to  the  opinion 
that  they  should  give  him  a  trial,  and  he  was 
engaged.  A  few  days  later,  he  appeared  at 
the  office  with  his  father,  his  worldly  posses 
sions  tied  up  in  a  handkerchief,  and  entered 
into  a  verbal  agreement  to  work  for  the  con 
cern  until  he  was  twenty-one  years  old,  re 
ceiving  only  his  board  for  the  first  six  months, 
and  after  that  $40  a  year  in  addition.  This 
compensation  was  somewhat  increased  before 
he  left  Poultney,  and  out  of  his  slender  means, 
12 


His  Early  Years 

as  afterward  in  New  York,  he  always  found 
some  surplus  to  send  to  the  struggling  family 
in  the  Pennsylvania  wilderness.  It  is  inter 
esting  here  to  note  that  from  the  town  of 
Poultney,  Vt.,  came  George  Jones,  who  gave 
Henry  J.  Raymond  his  chief  financial  assist 
ance  in  founding  the  New  York  Times,  and 
long  survived  both  Greeley  and  Eaymond  as 
controlling  owner  of  the  Times. 

Horace's  experience  in  East  Poultney  was 
of  the  greatest  educational  value  to  him. 
There  he  first  had  access  to  a  public  library. 
He  soon  joined  a  debating  club,  of  which  the 
leading  citizens  of  the  town  were  members, 
and,  without  changing  his  working  clothes  or 
attempting  oratory,  he  won  a  reputation  as 
a  cogent  reasoner,  and  a  speaker  who  was 
always  sure  of  his  facts.  As  there  were  only 
two  or  three  workmen  employed  in  the  office, 
he  had  experience,  not  only  in  setting  type, 
but  in  blistering  his  hands  and  laming  his 
back  assisting  in  running  off  the  edition  on 
an  old-fashioned  hand-press.  His  opportu 
nity  went  further  than  this.  Writing  "com 
positions  "  had  not  been  one  of  the  require 
ments  of  the  schools  he  had  attended ;  but  the 
editor  of  the  Northern  Spectator  was  a  Bap 
tist  clergyman,  whose  religious  duties  took  up 
a  good  deal  of  his  time,  and  the  apprentice, 
13 


Horace  Greeley 


when  his  taste  for  reading  and  his  ability  in 
debate  became  known,  was  entrusted  with  the 
selection  of  some  of  the  miscellany  for  the 
paper,  the  condensation  of  news,  and  the 
preparation  of  occasional  original  para 
graphs,  which  were  often  set  up  in  type  by 
him  without  first  reducing  them  to  manu 
script  form. 

This  was  that  kind  of  practical  education 
for  which  Greeley  always  contended,  and  it 
was  excellent  fundamental  instruction  for  the 
future  editor  of  a  city  daily.  The  place  for 
a  young  man  to  begin  in  journalism  is  at  the 
bottom — as  a  reporter,  if  he  is  employed  on 
a  daily  newspaper,  or  a  condenser  and 
gleaner  if  news  is  not  the  leading  feature  of 
the  journal  he  is  helping  to  make.  While 
Horace  Greeley  achieved  his  chief  fame  as  a 
writer — a  debater  of  principles — it  would  be 
a  mistake  not  to  recognize  the  fact  that  he 
was  a  good  "all-around"  newspaper  man. 
His  first  journalistic  attempts  in  New  York 
city,  as  we  shall  see,  illustrated  this;  his  re 
ports  of  legislative  and  congressional  pro 
ceedings  and  other  matters  demonstrated  his 
skill  as  a  reporter,  and  his  close  supervision 
of  all  the  columns  of  the  Tribune  was  made 
plain  in  the  correspondence  with  his  man 
aging  editor,  Charles  A.  Dana,  published 
14 


His  Early  Years 

after  his  death.  He  always  felt  a  responsi 
bility  for  the  kind  of  journal  that  he  gave  to 
his  subscribers.  "I  think  that  newspaper 
reading  is  worth  all  the  schools  in  the  coun 
try,"  he  told  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  of  which  Cobden  was  a  member, 
when  invited,  in  London  in  1851,  to  give  his 
views  on  "taxes  on  knowledge,"  and  he  was 
too  honest  to  offer  his  readers  anything  less 
than  the  best  that  he  could  supply.  Some  ad 
vice  to  a  country  editor,  written  by  him  in 
1860,  could  hardly  be  improved  upon.  His 
first  principle  laid  down  was  that  "the  sub 
ject  of  deepest  interest  to  an  average  human 
being  is  himself ;  next  to  that,  he  is  most  con 
cerned  about  his  neighbor."  He  therefore 
told  his  correspondent  that,  if  he  would  make 
up  at  least  half  his  paper  of  local  news,  se 
cured  by  "a  wide-awake,  judicious  corre 
spondent  in  every  village  and  township  in 
your  county,  nobody  in  the  county  can  long 
do  without  it.  Make  your  paper  a  perfect 
mirror  of  everything  done  in  your  county  that 
its  citizens  ought  to  know"  This  covers  the 
whole  ground  of  breadth  and  restriction. 
Next,  he  would  have  the  editor  take  an  active 
part  in  promoting  all  "home  industries,"  in 
which  he  included  local  fairs  and  new  busi 
ness  enterprises  of  all  kinds.  Thirdly,  and 
15 


Horace  Greeley 

lastly,  lie  says:  "Don't  let  the  politicians  and 
aspirants  of  the  county  own  you.  .  .  .  Ee-. 
member  that — in  addition  to  the  radical 
righteousness  of  the  thing — the  taxpayers 
take  many  more  papers  than  the  tax  con 
sumers."  The  following  of  this  advice  would 
have  made  a  success  of  many  a  journalistic 
experiment  that  has  proved  a  failure. 

Greeley's  interest  in  politics  began  with 
his  early  interest  in  newspapers,  and  he  con 
fesses  that  he  was  an  "ardent  politician" 
when  he  was  not  half  old  enough  to  vote. 
His  newspaper  apprenticeship  gave  him  his 
first  opportunity  to  share  in  political  discus 
sion,  and  aid  in  the  work  of  a  campaign.  John 
Quincy  Adams  was  President,  Calhoun  Vice- 
President,  and  Henry  Clay  Secretary  of 
State  when  Greeley  went  to  East  Poultney, 
and  public  feeling  was  seething  over  the 
charge  that  there  had  been  a  corrupt  bargain 
between  Adams  and  Clay.  In  the  national 
election  of  1828  Calhoun  was  the  candidate 
for  Vice-President  on  the  Jackson  (Demo 
cratic)  ticket,  and  Adams  and  Eush  headed 
the  National  Eepublican  ticket.  "We  Ver- 
monters  were  all  protectionists,"  wrote  Gree 
ley;  the  Northern  Spectator  was  an  Adams 
paper  of  the  partizan  type,  and  on  election 
day  Poultney  gave  Adams  334  votes  and 
16 


His  Early  Years 


Jackson  only  4.  Greeley  was  also  greatly 
interested  in  the  Antimasonry  political  move 
ment,  sympathizing  with  the  opponents  of 
the  secret  order,  and  maintaining  his  oppo 
sition  to  such  organizations  throughout  his 
life. 

Diligent  student  as  he  was,  Horace  was 
not  averse  to  amusements  in  those  days.  In 
his  school  and  farming  life,  fishing  was  his 
favorite  recreation,  and  in  picturing  an  ideal 
rest,  in  his  Busy  Life,  he  suggested  a  party 
of  congenial  friends,  camped  on  some  coast 
islet  or  Adirondack  lake,  where  fish  or  game 
could  be  had.  He  sometimes,  when  at  Poult- 
ney,  joined  a  party  of  bee-hunters,  and  occa 
sionally  took  part  in  a  game  of  ball,  but  ac 
knowledged  his  inability  "to  catch  a  flying 
ball,  propelled  by  a  muscular  arm  straight  at 
my  nose."  He  in  later  years  objected  to  base 
ball  matches  between  clubs  of  distant  cities, 
and  advocated  giving  the  prize  to  the  club 
that  made  the  lowest  score,  as  this  demon 
strated  that  these  players  attended  better 
than  their  opponents  to  their  business  duties. 
Old  acquaintances  in  Poultney  said  that  he 
was  fond  of  whist,  checkers,  and  chess,  and 
told  of  his  defeating  a  locally  famous  checker 
player;  but  such  games  did  not  win  his  ad 
miration,  and  he  afterward  advised  persons 
3  17 


Horace  Greeley 


of  sedentary  habits  to  shun  them  "because  of 
their  inevitable  tendency  to  impair  digestion 
and  incite  headache."  He  never  witnessed  a 
game  of  billiards,  but  he  recommends  bowl 
ing  as  an  indoor  exercise. 

Two  rules  of  life  Greeley  had  already 
formed  when  he  reached  New  York — he  was 
a  non-user  of  intoxicants  and  tobacco. 
Neither  of  his  parents,  he  says,  was  a  total 
abstainer  from  the  use  of  liquor,  and  both 
loved  their  pipe.  But  the  son  was  made  sick 
by  smoking  a  half -burned  cigar  in  his  grand 
father's  house  when  not  more  than  five  years 
old,  and  from  that  time  he  looked  on  the  use 
of  tobacco  in  any  form  as  "if  not  the  most 
pernicious,  certainly  the  vilest,  most  detest 
able  abuse  of  his  corrupt  sensual  appetites 
whereof  depraved  man  is  capable." 

On  January  1,  1824,  young  Greeley  "de 
liberately  resolved  to  drink  no  more  distilled 
liquors,"  and  he  kept  this  pledge  thus  made 
to  himself  when  only  thirteen  years  old,  in 
a  community  where  strong  drink  was  as  free 
as  water,  and  nine  years  before  the  American 
Temperance  Society  declared  for  total  absti 
nence.  Soon  after  he  went  to  Poultney  he 
assisted  in  organizing  a  temperance  society, 
and,  to  make  sure  that  his  own  years  would 
not  bar  him  from  membership,  he  had  a 
18 


His  Early  Years 


resolution  adopted  that  members  be  received 
"when  they  were  old  enough  to  drink." 

The  Northern  Spectator  was  not  a  finan 
cial  success.  It  struggled  on,  however,  under 
different  ownerships,  until  June,  1830,  when 
its  publication  was  discontinued  and  the  office 
was  closed.  Greeley  left  the  town  with  en 
larged  information  on  many  subjects,  inclu 
ding  writing  and  speaking  and  the  duties  of 
newspaper  editing.  In  the  way  of  capital  he 
had  only  $20  in  cash  and  perhaps  a  few  more 
clothes  than  he  came  into  the  town  with.  He 
went  at  once,  part  of  the  way  on  foot,  to  his 
parents'  home,  made  a  visit  there  of  a  few 
weeks,  and  then  set  out  to  seek  work  at  his 
trade.  He  found  employment  at  Jamestown 
and  Gowanda,  N.  Y.,  and  later  began  an  en 
gagement  that  lasted  for  seven  months  in  the 
office  of  the  Erie  (Penn.)  Gazette.  Wherever 
he  applied  his  personal  appearance  was  still 
against  him.  The  proprietor  of  the  Gazette 
used  to  relate  that  when  he  entered  the  office 
and  saw  Greeley  (who  was  waiting  for  him) 
reading  some  of  the  exchange  newspapers, 
his  first  feeling  was  one  of  astonishment  that 
a  fellow  so  singularly  "green  "  in  his  appear 
ance  should  be  reading  anything. 

When  the  Gazette  office  no  longer  offered 
him  employment,  he  tried  to  secure  work  in 
19 


Horace  Greeley 


some  of  the  neighboring  towns,  and,  when 
this  effort  failed,  made  up  his  mind  to  look 
for  a  position  in  New  York  city.  Accord 
ingly,  he  again  visited  his  parents,  divided 
with  them  his  cash,  retaining  only  $25  for  his 
own  use,  and  with  $10  of  this  sum,  and  his 
scanty  wardrobe,  he  stepped  from  an  Albany 
boat  to  a  pier  near  Whitehall  Street  early 
on  the  morning  of  Friday,  August  18,  1831. 


20 


CHAPTER   II 

FIRST  EXPEKIENCES  IN   NEW  YOKK   CITY — THE 
NEW   YORKER 

GREELEY  soon  satisfied  himself  with  a 
stopping  place,  engaging  a  room  and  board 
for  $2.50  a  week  with  Edward  McGolrick,  who 
kept  a  grog-shop  and  boarding-house  com 
bined — a  quiet,  decent  one — at  No.  168  West 
Street ;  and  after  breakfast  he  started  out  to 
look  for  work.  He  was  as  persistent  in  this, 
in  the  face  of  discouragement,  as  he  was  in 
every  duty.  For  two  days  he  tramped  the 
streets,  visiting  two-thirds  of  the  printing- 
offices  in  the  city,  always  receiving  a  "No  " 
to  his  question,  "Do  you  want  a  hand?  "  and 
incurring  the  accusation  in  one  office  of  being 
a  runaway  apprentice.  When  Saturday  night 
came  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  the  city 
afforded  him  no  hope  of  a  living,  and  had 
decided  to  start  for  the  country  again  on 
Monday,  before  his  last  dollar  was  spent. 

But  this  was  not  to  be.  Some  young  ac 
quaintances  of  his  landlord,  who  called  on 
21 


Horace  Greeley 


Sunday,  told  him  of  an  office  at  No.  85  Chat 
ham  Street,  where  a  compositor  was  wanted, 
and  there  Greeley  betook  himself  on  Monday 
morning  so  early  that  the  place  was  closed 
when  he  arrived.  So  uncouth  was  the  lad's 
appearance  that  here  again  he  would  prob 
ably  have  been  rejected  had  any  one  been  at 
hand  to  undertake  the  work  that  was  to  be 
done.  This  was  the  putting  in  type  of  a  small 
New  Testament,  with  narrow  columns,  the 
text  interspersed  with  references  to  notes 
marked  by  Greek  and  other  letters.  So  com 
plicated  was  this  task,  and  so  little  could  a 
man  earn  at  it,  paid  by  the  ems  set,  that  sev 
eral  compositors  had  abandoned  it  after  a 
brief  trial.  This  job  the  foreman  offered  to 
the  country  lad,  confident  that  a  half  day 
would  prove  his  incompetence  to  perform  it. 
When  the  proprietor  came  in  and  saw  Gree 
ley  at  work,  he  inquired,  "Did  you  hire  that 
d — d  fool?  "  adding,  "For  God's  sake,  pay 
him  off  to-night."  But  the  foreman  did  not 
pay  him  off.  The  one  thing  this  New  Eng- 
lander,  who  had  cleared  land  standing  knee- 
deep  in  slush  in  the  spring,  and  barefooted  on 
thistles  in  summer,  was  not  afraid  of  was 
hard  work;  the  one  thing  he  must  have  was 
an  income  sufficient  to  keep  him  alive.  He 
set  that  Testament.  When  the  foreman  ex- 
22 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

amined  Ms  first  proof,  he  found  that  the 
"d — d  fool "  had  set  more  type  and  in  better 
shape  than  any  one  else  who  had  attempt 
ed  it. 

For  two  or  three  weeks  the  boy  scarcely 
made  his  board,  although  he  moved  his  quar 
ters  to  a  mechanics'  boarding  place  near  the 
office,  and  worked  all  the  hours  that  were  not 
given  to  his  meals  and  to  sleep ;  but  he  gained 
in  rapidity,  and  finally  made  $5  or  $6  a  week 
by  working  from  twelve  to  fourteen  hours  a 
day,  his  "case  "  lighted  at  night  by  a  candle 
stuck  in  a  bottle.  Naturally,  the  boys  in  the 
office  played  tricks  on  so  promising  a  subject, 
but  he  took  these  without  resentment,  and  the 
annoyance  soon  stopped,  his  good  nature 
winning  him  friends.  He  was,  even  in  that 
early  year,  a  lender  of  money  to  his  fellow- 
workmen,  while  he  was  denying  himself 
everything  outside  of  the  bare  necessities  of 
life.  The  New  Testament  finished,  he  was 
out  of  work  for  a  time,  and  was  then  as 
signed  to  a  "lean  "  job  on  a  commentary  on 
the  Book  of  Genesis.  Then  came  further 
tramping,  and  a  discharge  from  one  newspa 
per  office,  tradition  says,  because  he  was  not 
"decent  looking,"  until  he  became  so  nearly 
discouraged  that  he  seriously  thought  of  try 
ing  some  other  form  of  employment.  The 
23 


Horace  Greeley 


idea  of  seeking  work  at  the  national  capital 
occurred  to  him,  but  while  he  had  employment 
he  had  treated  himself  to  a  suit  of  clothes 
— a  second-hand  suit  of  black,  bought  of  a 
Chatham  Street  dealer,  in  which,  he  says,  he 
found  "no  wear  and  little  warmth " — and 
this  had  so  depleted  his  capital  that  he  had 
not  money  enough  to  pay  his  way  to  Wash 
ington.  In  the  following  January,  however, 
he  found  work  in  the  office  of  the  Spirit  of 
the  Times,  which  had  just  been  started  by 
W.  T.  Porter  and  James  Howe,  two  newcom 
ers  from  the  country,  with  scant  capital. 
This  enterprise  was  a  discouraging  one  from 
the  start,  but,  while  Greeley  found  it  difficult 
to  collect  his  wages,  he  also  found  opportu 
nity  to  show  his  skill  in  writing  articles  for 
the  paper,  thus  keeping  in  practise  what  he 
had  learned  in  Vermont.  Later  in  the  year 
he  secured  employment  in  the  office  of  J.  S. 
Kedfield,  afterward  a  prominent  publisher, 
and  remained  there  until  he  was  induced  to 
join  a  fellow  printer  in  setting  up  a  printing 
establishment  of  their  own.  That  experiment 
came  about  in  this  way: 

Francis  Story,  the  foreman  of  the  Spirit 

of    the    Times    composing-room,    numbered 

among  his  acquaintances  S.  J.  Sylvester,  a 

leading  seller  of  lottery  tickets,  and  Dr.  H.  D. 

24 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

Shepard,  a  medical  student,  who  had  about 
$1,500  in  cash  at  command.  Through  Sylves 
ter,  Story  counted  on  being  able  to  secure 
the  printing  of  the  weekly  Bank-Note  Be- 
porter,  and  for  Shepard  he  had  in  view  the 
printing  of  a  one-cent  daily  newspaper,  which 
Shepard  had  decided  to  establish.  With  this 
business  in  sight,  Story  proposed  to  Greeley 
that  they  open  a  printing-office  of  their  own, 
and,  not  without  misgivings,  Greeley  finally 
consented.  Between  them  they  could  count 
up  less  than  $200 ;  but  they  secured  $40  worth 
of  type  on  six  months'  credit,  hired  two 
rooms  at  No.  54  Liberty  Street,  and  invested 
all  their  cash  in  the  necessary  equipment. 
Thence,  on  January  31,  1833,  Dr.  Shepard's 
Morning  Post  was  issued.  Finding  no  en 
couragement  for  his  one-cent  scheme,  he  had 
fixed  the  price  from  the  start  at  two  cents; 
but  as  cheapness  was  to  be  the  one  quality 
that  would  induce  people  to  buy  a  paper  of 
which  Greeley  says,  "it  had  no  editors,  no 
reporters  worth  naming,  no  correspondents, 
and  no  exchanges  even,"  it  was  a  certain  fail 
ure,  and  it  died  when  two  weeks  and  a  half 
old.  The  one-cent  Sun  came  nine  months 
later,  and  came  to  stay. 

The  firm  of  Greeley  &  Story  lost  about 
$50  through  Dr.  Shepard,  but  this  did  not 
25 


Horace  Greeley 

bankrupt  them.  A  purchaser  was  found  for 
some  of  the  Morning  Post's  equipment,  the 
Bank-Note  Reporter  gave  them  a  little  in 
come,  and  they  secured  the  printing  of  a  tri 
weekly  paper  called  the  Constitutionalist, 
whose  local  habitation  was  in  Delaware,  and 
which  was  the  organ  of  the  lottery  interest. 
Lottery-ticket  selling  was  a  reputable  busi 
ness  in  those  days,  and  Greeley  not  only 
printed  the  dealers'  organ,  but  was  a  con 
tributor  to  it,  one  of  his  articles  being  a  de 
fense  of  lotteries  when  an  outcry  arose 
against  them  because  of  the  suicide  of  a 
young  man  who  had  lost  all  his  property  in 
tickets.  When  his  assistance  was  not  re 
quired  in  his  own  shop,  Greeley  would  work 
as  a  substitute  compositor  in  a  newspaper 
office  near  by,  and  he  was  making  fair  if  slow 
progress  in  the  world,  when,  in  July,  1833, 
Story  was  drowned  while  bathing  in  the  East 
Eiver.  His  place  in  the  firm  was  taken  by 
Jonas  Winchester,  and  the  business  contin 
ued  so  prosperously  that  in  1834  Greeley  had 
the  courage  to  think  seriously  of  starting  a 
newspaper  of  which  he  should  be  the  editor. 
That  he  had  made  something  of  a  mark  in  the 
local  newspaper  world  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  he  was  at  this  time  invited  by  James  Gor 
don  Bennett  to  become  interested  with  him  in 
26 


; 


Facsimile  extract  from  the  New  Yorker. 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

starting  a  daily  paper  to  be  called  the  New 
York  Herald.  This  offer  was  declined,  but  the 
idea  of  a  paper  of  his  own  was  carried  out,  and 
on  March  22,  1834,  appeared  the  first  number 
of  the  weekly  known  as  the  New  Yorker. 
Greeley  was  its  editor;  his  partner  confining 
himself  to  the  business  of  the  job-office. 

The  people  of  this  country  early  mani 
fested  a  demand  for  newspapers,  and,  as  set 
tlements  were  pushed  farther  West,  a  local 
paper  would  spring  up,  sometimes  before  the 
stumps  were  removed  from  the  new  clearing. 
A  usual  plan  was  for  a  printer  to  issue  a 
prospectus  and  ask  for  subscribers.  If  he 
secured  sufficient  encouragement,  he  might 
act  as  his  own  editor,  or,  more  probably 
(as  was  the  case  with  the  Northern  Specta 
tor),  engage  some  person  of  a  literary  bent 
to  devote  a  part  of  his  time  to  the  editorial 
room.  De  Tocqueville,  in  1835,  wrote:  "The 
number  of  periodicals  and  occasional  publi 
cations  which  appear  in  the  United  States 
actually  surpasses  belief.  There  is  scarcely 
a  hamlet  which  has  not  its  own  newspaper." l 

1  The  number  of  newspapers  and  periodicals  in  the  United 
States  in  1828  was  estimated  at  863,  with  an  annual  issue  of 
over  68,000,000,  while  the  census  of  1840  showed  1,403,  with 
a  yearly  issue  of  195,838,073  copies.  New  York  State  reported 
161  in  1838,  and  245  in  1840. 

27 


Horace  Greeley 

But  he  found  that  "the  most  distinguished 
classes  of  society  are  rarely  led  to  engage  in 
these  undertakings";  and  that  "the  journal 
ists  of  the  United  States  are  usually  placed 
in  a  very  humble  position,  with  a  scanty  edu 
cation  and  a  vulgar  turn  of  mind."  When 
John  (afterward  Lord)  Campbell  eked  out 
his  income  in  London,  in  the  first  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  by  reporting  parlia 
mentary  debates,  the  calling  was  so  discredit 
able  that  he  concealed  his  avocation  from  his 
fellow  law  students.  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  let  it  be  understood  that  it  would 
have  hurt  him  professionally  had  it  been 
known  that  he  was  a  "literary  man"  when 
he  began  writing. 

Of  the  literary  taste  of  New  York  city 
in  1828,  a  writer  in  the  Picture  of  New  York 
said:  "Most  of  the  periodical  works  attempt 
ed  in  this  city  have  proved  abortive  in  a  few 
years.  The  population  is  so  nearly  commer 
cial  that  the  largest  portion  of  the  public  at 
tention  is  monopolized  by  the  newspapers  of 
the  day."  Whether  Greeley  had  gaged  the 
literary  taste  of  New  York  by  this  measure 
and  hoped  to  improve  it,  we  do  not  know. 
He  never  exhibited  long-headedness  in  busi 
ness  matters,  and  may  have  been  guided  by 
an  ambition  to  edit  a  creditable  literary  jour- 
28 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

nal  rather  than  by  any  careful  estimate  of  its 
possible  financial  success. 

Greeley  planned  to  combine  in  his  New 
Yorker  "literature,  politics,  statistics,  and 
general  intelligence."  His  success  in  making 
a  good  paper  of  his  initial  venture  was  a 
sufficient  proof  of  his  editorial  ability.  What 
the  New  Yorker  was  he  made  it  almost  un 
aided.  In  his  farewell  address  to  his  sub 
scribers,  in  1841,  when  the  paper  was  merged 
with  the  Weekly  Tribune,  he  said:  "The  edi 
torial  charge  of  the  New  Yorker  has  from 
the  first  devolved  on  him  who  now  addresses 
its  readers.  At  times  he  has  been  aided  in 
the  literary  department  by  gentlemen  of  de 
cided  talent  and  eminence  [including  Park 
Benjamin,1  C.  H.  Hoffman,  and  R.  W.  Gris- 
wold] ;  at  others  the  entire  conduct  has  rested 
with  him."  A  glance  at  the  file  of  this  jour 
nal  will  show  what  a  capacity  for  work  its 


1  Henry  J.  Raymond,  in  a  letter  to  E.  W.  Griswold,  from 
Burlington,  Vt.,  October  31,  1839,  said  :  "I  am  sorry  Benja 
min  has  left  the  New  Yorker.  If  he  had  exerted  himself  but 
a  little  he  could  have  made  that  infinitely  the  best  weekly 
in  the  United  States.  Who  will  Greeley  associate  with  him  ? 
I  hope  (but  do  not  expect)  that  he  will  get  one  to  Jill  B.'s 
place.  The  Sentinel  here  a  few  weeks  since  undertook  to  use 
up  Benjamin  instanter  on  account  of  his  critique  of  Irving. 
I  gave  it  a  decent  rap  for  it  in  the  Free  Press,  and  since  that 
they  have  let  B.  alone  and  gone  to  pommeling  me." 

29 


Horace  Greeley 

editor  had.1  Beginning  as  a  folio,  it  was  pub 
lished  in  both  folio  and  quarto  form  after 
March,  1836,  the  folio  being  issued  on  Satur 
day  mornings  and  the  quarto  (of  sixteen 
pages)  on  Saturday  afternoons.  Taking  as 

1  Greeley's  idea  of  what  a  man  should  do  in  the  way  of 
newspaper  work  in  those  days  was  thus  set  forth  in  a  letter  to 
B.  F.  Randolph,  dated  May  2,  1836  :  "  I  want  the  whole  con 
cern,  printing-office  included,  to  belong  to  you  and  I,  and  to 
be  entirely  managed  between  us.  I  want  you  to  take  com 
mand  at  the  publication  office,  and,  in  a  short  time,  reduce  the 
whole  business  to  a  system.  Thus  far  our  business  depart 
ment  has  been  but  half  attended  to,  and  the  consequence  is 
that  we  have  lost  a  great  deal  by  bad  agents,  runaway  sub 
scribers,  etc.  To  remedy  this  it  requires  a  man  steadily  at 
the  publication  office  who  not  only  knows  what  business  is, 
but  feels  a  deep  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  the  concern.  It 
needs  some  one  who  knows  every  agent  and  the  state  of  his 
account  familiarly,  and  who  can  almost  repeat  the  names  of 
the  subscribers  from  memory.  To  do  this  he  must  make  all 
the  entries  in  the  books  himself  and  keep  the  accounts  ;  but  as 
the  new  subscribers  will  not  probably  exceed  100  per  week,  the 
discontinuances  25  or  30,  and  the  changes  as  many  more,  I 
believe  all  the  business,  including  the  making  out  of  the  bills 
(excepting,  of  course,  the  writing  of  mails,  which  is  done  by 
a  clerk),  might  well  be  done  by  a  thorough  appropriation  of 
five  hours  per  day — at  least  after  one  had  become  practically 
familiar  with  it.  As  I  should  still  have  to  do  a  share  of  the 
outdoor  business,  besides  taking  entire  charge  of  the  printing- 
office,  I  should  expect  you  to  assist  me  in  the  editorial  man 
agement — at  first  in  the  easier  portion  of  it,  such  as  examin 
ing  exchange  papers,  and  taking  entire  charge  of  the  city  and 
domestic  news ;  afterward,  as  experience  in  these  departments 
and  system  in  the  other  would  allow  you  more  time  to  do  so, 
in  the  more  especially  literary  department  of  the  paper." 

30 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

a  fair  example  the  quarto  of  March  26,  1836, 
we  find,  first,  eight  pages  devoted  to  original 
and  selected  poems;  the  first  of  a  series  of 
Letters  of  a  Monomaniac;  a  description  of  a 
visit  to  the  King  of  Greece,  and  prose  selec 
tions  from  home  and  foreign  sources;  then 
come  two  pages  of  editorial  and  political  mat 
ter;  a  little  over  a  page  devoted  to  a  report 
of  the  proceedings  of  Congress;  reviews  of 
new  books;  the  latest  foreign  and  domestic 
news  (particular  attention  being  given  to  the 
politics  of  the  different  States),  and  the  last 
page  occupied  with  the  words  and  music  of 
Meet  Me  by  Moonlight,  "written  and  com 
posed  by  J.  Augustin  Wade,  Esq."  The  space 
given  to  the  proceedings  of  Congress,  to 
State  politics,  and  to  tabulated  election  re 
turns  gave  every  indication  of  the  political 
bent  of  the  editor,  and  his  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  news  was  shown  by  the  frequent 
additions  of  "postscripts  "  to  the  folio  edi 
tion,  giving  intelligence  received  by  the  mails 
after  the  first  edition  had  gone  to  press.  In 
later  years  the  literary  pages  contained  orig 
inal  stories — Dickens's  Barnaby  Eudge  being 
printed  as  a  serial  (appearing  also  in  the 
Tribune) — and  increased  space  was  devoted 
to  book  reviews.  In  an  article  contesting  an 
argument  that  the  best  British  writers  of  the 
31 


Horace  Greeley 


day  were  superior  to  the  best  American  wri 
ters,  the  editor  thus  expressed  his  opinion 
of  Disraeli: 

"Himself  an  open  libertine  in  life,  we  re 
gard  his  works  as  among  the  most  mon 
strously  absurd,  and  at  the  same  time  abom 
inably  pernicious,  of  the  distorted  and  de 
praved  pictures  of  fashionable  description  in 
European  high  life  that  we  ever  unsuccess 
fully  attempted  to  endure  to  the  end." 

Greeley  contributed  to  the  New  Yorker 
and  to  other  periodicals  of  the  day  a  number 
of  poems  over  his  initials.  They  were  of 
varied  merit,  some  of  them  showing  quite  as 
much  of  the  poetic  "fire  "  as  do  current  poet 
ical  contributions  of  our  own  day.  A  single 
quotation — the  last  of  some  verses  On  the 
Death  of  William  Wirt — must  suffice : 

Then  take  thy  long  repose 

Beneath  the  shelter  of  the  deep  green  sod  ; 
Death  but  a  brighter  halo  o'er  thee  throws — 

Thy  fame,  thy  soul  alike  have  spurned  the  clod — 
Kest  thee  in  God. 

But  Greeley  never  considered  himself  a 
poet,  and  when,  in  1869,  Robert  Bonner  pro 
posed  to  print  a  volume  of  poems  not  to  be 
found  in  Dana's  Household  Handbook  of 
Poetry,  Greeley  sent  him  a  letter  saying: 
"Be  good  enough — you  must — to  exclude  me 
32 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

from  your  new  poetic  Pantheon.  I  have  no 
business  therein — no  right  and  no  desire  to 
be  installed  there.  I  am  no  poet,  never  was 
(in  expression),  and  never  shall  be." 

The  reader  of  to-day,  who  had  only  a  file 
of  the  New  Yorker  for  his  literary  entertain 
ment,  would  find  it  both  interesting  and  in 
structive.  The  editorial  articles  discussed  a 
wide  range  of  subjects  with  clearness  and 
precision,  and  an  exacting  editor  of  a  modern 
metropolitan  journal  would  find  in  their  form 
little  that  would  call  for  revision.  The  editor 
had  those  prime  qualifications  for  success  in 
his  calling — ideas  to  express  and  the  power 
of  expressing  them.  His  views  might  at  times 
be  erratic  and  provoke  much  dissent,  but  this 
did  not  mean  that  he  would  not  command  an 
audience.  As  illustrations  of  the  scope  of  his 
discussion  it  may  be  mentioned  that  he  vigor 
ously  attacked  the  franking  abuse;  opposed 
all  labor  combinations,  either  of  masters  or 
journeymen,  to  regulate  compensation,  ex 
cept  the  establishment  of  a  uniform  scale  of 
wages,  to  be  followed  in  the  absence  of  an 
agreement  to  the  contrary;  expressed  a  wish 
for  the  independence  of  Texas,  but  opposed 
its  annexation  as  likely  to  cause  foreign  com 
plications,  and  because  "our  territory  is  am 
ple";  objected  to  the  expenditure  of  the 
4  33 


Horace  Greeley 

Treasury  surplus  (in  1836)  on  armaments 
and  fortifications,  believing  that  a  railroad 
from  Portland  to  New  Orleans  would  serve 
the  better  purpose  of  assisting  in  the  concen 
tration  of  "the  true  safeguard  against  inva 
sion—the  muskets  of  our  citizen  soldiers  " ; 
proposed  the  formation  of  associations  in 
the  city  to  enforce  the  law  against  houses  of 
ill-fame;  and,  when  rents  were  advanced 
downtown,  urged  the  building  of  railroads 
from  the  Exchange,  the  park,  and  the  Bat 
tery  to  the  Harlem  River,  in  order  to  make 
the  upper  part  of  the  island  accessible;  op 
posed  the  forcible  removal  of  the  Creeks  and 
Cherokees  from  their  homes  in  the  southern 
Atlantic  States;  and,  while  maintaining  that 
the  United  States  Government  was  right  in 
its  claim  regarding  the  northeastern  bound 
ary,  deprecated  war  and  proposed  arbitra 
tion. 

Greeley's  view  of  "clean  "  journalism  was 
well  set  forth  in  an  article  in  April,  1841, 
in  which  he  condemned  the  spreading  of  de 
tails  of  crime  before  newspaper  readers,  say 
ing:  "We  weigh  well  our  words  when  we  say 
that  the  moral  guilt  incurred,  and  the  violent 
hurt  inflicted  upon  social  order  and  individ 
ual  happiness  by  those  who  have  thus  spread 
out  the  loathsome  details  of  this  most  damn- 
34 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

ing  deed  [a  murder]  are  tenfold  greater 
than  those  of  the  miscreant  himself."  He 
was  an  opponent  of  the  spoils  system,  char 
acterizing  political  removals  (in  1837)  as 
"calculated  to  corrupt  and  demoralize  the 
public  sentiment." 

The  two  great  questions  with  which  Gree- 
ley's  name  was  afterward  so  intimately  as 
sociated — the  tariff  and  slavery — were  at 
tracting  little  attention  during  the  first  years 
of  the  New  Yorker,  and  their  treatment  by 
him  at  that  time  will  be  shown  in  later  chap 
ters.  The  great  subject  of  public  interest  was 
the  finances,  State  and  national.  The  propo 
sition  to  establish  a  United  States  Bank,  the 
removal  of  the  Federal  deposits,  the  distribu 
tion  of  the  public  funds  among  the  States, 
Harrison's  defeat  by  Van  Buren,  the  expan 
sion  of  the  paper  currency  by  the  issues  of 
the  many  new  banks  throughout  the  country, 
and  the  panic  of  1837,  all  came  within  the 
scope  of  the  New  Yorker's  editorials.  In 
New  York  State,  before  the  year  1838,  bank 
charters  were  granted  only  as  the  Legisla 
ture  thought  fit.  "Accustomed  as  we  are  to 
the  spoils  system  of  to-day,"  says  Horace 
White,  "it  sounds  oddly  to  read  that  bank 
charters  were  granted  by  Whig  and  Democrat 
ic  Legislatures  only  to  their  own  partizans. 
35 


Horace  Greeley 

Not  only  was  this  the  common  practise,  but 
shares  in  banks,  or  the  right  to  subscribe  to 
them,  were  parceled  out  to  political  '  bosses ' 
in  the  several  counties."  There  was  opposi 
tion  to  all  banks  in  the  agricultural  counties, 
and  the  laboring  classes  were  generally  hos 
tile  to  paper  money.1  The  New  Yorker 
fought  steadily  for  free  banking  and  for  a 
redeemable  paper  currency.  It  expressed  a 
hope  that  the  agriculturist  would  be  found 
"firmly  united  in  spurning  an  unnatural  and 
ruinous  alliance  with  the  mustering  legions 
of  agrarianism,"  and  it  combated  the  theory 
that  money  should  be  made  only  of  the  pre 
cious  metals.  Under  the  free  banking  system 
that  it  favored  no  persons  were  to  be  allowed 
to  issue  notes  "in  excess  of  their  actual  cap 
ital  (or,  better,  only  to  equal  three-quarters 
of  this  capital),  in  specie,  or  property  readily 

1  A  meeting  in  the  City  Hall  Park,  in  March,  1837,  called  to 
consider  the  high  prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  adopted  a 
report  which  said:  "There  is  another  great  cause  of  high 
prices,  so  monstrous  in  its  nature  that  we  could  hardly  credit 
its  existence  were  it  not  continually  before  us — we  mean  the 
curse  of  Paper  Money.  Gold  and  silver  are  produced  from  the 
earth  by  labor ;  they  are,  or  ought  to  be,  earned  from  the  pro 
ducer  by  labor.  No  man  nor  combination  can  by  Christian 
means  collect  a  sufficiency  of  these  metals  to  enable  him  to 
engross  the  food,  fuel,  or  houses  of  a  nation ;  but  a  leagued 
band  of  paper-promise  coiners  exert  absolute  control  over  the 
whole  wealth  of  the  country."— (New  Yorker,  March  18,  1837.) 

36 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

convertible  into  specie."  Some  of  its  finan 
cial  recommendations  were  novel.  Thus,  in 
1836,  it  suggested  that  each  railroad,  canal, 
and  similar  corporation  be  empowered  to 
issue  notes  to  the  amount  of  two-thirds  the 
value  of  its  completed  enterprise,  "these 
notes  to  constitute  a  special  lien  on  the  work 
itself,  taking  precedence  of  all  other  claims." 
At  the  time  of  the  suspension  of  payments 
by  the  New  York  city  banks,  in  1837,  the  New 
Yorker  defended  them  warmly,  charging  the 
troubles  to  the  Northwest,  and  on  the  day  of 
the  suspension  it  offered  three-per-cent  pre 
mium  "on  every  New  York  city  bill  mailed 
to  our  address  before  the  first  of  June." 
Considering  the  editor's  financial  status  at 
that  time,  this  was  a  good  deal  like  Daniel 
Webster's  offer  to  pay  the  national  debt.  In 
February,  1838,  as  a  means  of  obviating  the 
necessity  of  both  a  National  Bank  and  State 
banks,  the  New  Yorker  proposed  the  issue  of 
$100,000,000  in  Treasury  notes,  by  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  bearing  one-per-cent  inter 
est,  receivable  for  all  dues,  and  redeemable 
"in  public  lands  at  cash  prices."  The  Sub- 
treasury  scheme  it  constantly  opposed. 
From  these  excerpts  it  is  evident  that  the 
possession  of  "views  "  on  public  questions 
and  boldness  in  advocating  them  were  an 
37 


Horace  Greeley 


early,  as  well  as  a  late,  characteristic  of 
Horace  Greeley. 

Beginning  with  less  than  a  dozen  sub 
scribers,  the  New  Yorker  gained  steadily  in 
circulation  at  the  rate  of  about  one  hundred 
a  week,  until,  in  1836,  its  subscribers  num 
bered  7,500.  Unfortunately,  many  of  these 
readers  did  not  pay  for  their  subscriptions. 
The  paper  had  agents  all  over  the  country 
(a  list  of  them  fills  two  columns  of  one  num 
ber)  who  sent  in  the  names  of  subscribers, 
but  in  many  cases  did  not  accompany  these 
names  with  the  cash.  Greeley  lived  with  the 
utmost  frugality — the  life  of  a  miser,  as  he 
once  expressed  it  to  Thurlow  Weed — and  for 
two  years  was  obliged  to  look  to  his  job-office 
for  his  income.  Then,  the  paper  having  a 
fair  prospect,  he  gave  over  the  job-office  en 
tirely  to  his  partner,  and  took  the  charge  of 
the  paper  on  himself.  In  1836,  when  he  was 
married,  he  thought  that  he  was  worth 
$5,000,  and  that  he  could  safely  count  on  an 
income  of  $1,000  a  year.  But  the  panic  of 
1837  came,  and  his  books  began  to  show  a 
weekly  loss  of  $100.  He  had  given  notes  for 
his  white  paper,  and  he  had  used  up  some 
three  thousand  subscriptions  paid  in  ad 
vance.  Earnest  appeals  to  the  delinquents 
appeared  in  the  paper:  "Friends  of  the  New 
38 


First  Experiences  in  New  York 

Yorker!  Patrons!  We  appeal  to  you,  not 
for  charity,  but  for  justice.  Whoever  among 
you  is  in  our  debt,  no  matter  how  small  the 
sum,  is  guilty  of  a  moral  wrong  in  withhold 
ing  the  payment.  We  bitterly  need  it.  We 
have  a  right  to  expect  it."  Greeley  had  a 
horror  of  debt,  but  he  felt  that  he  must  keep 
up  the  struggle.  One  loan  of  $500  saved  him 
from  bankruptcy,  and  he  would  sometimes 
pay  $5  for  the  use  of  $500  over  Sunday.1  "If 
any  one  would  have  taken  my  business  and 
my  debts  off  my  hands,  upon  my  giving  him 
my  note  for  $2,000,  I  would  have  jumped  at 
the  chance,"  he  said  in  later  years,  "and  tried 
to  work  out  the  debt  by  typesetting,  if  noth 
ing  better  offered." 

Something  better  offered. 

1  Greeley  wrote  to  a  friend  on  July  29, 1835 :  "  I  paid  off 
everybody  to-night,  had  $10  left,  and  have  $350  to  raise  on 
Monday.  Borrowing  places  all  sucked  dry.  I  shall  raise  it, 
however." 


39 


CHAPTER  III 

THTJRLOW   WEED'S    DISCOVERY — THE    JEFFERSO- 
NIAN  AND  THE  LOG  CABIN 

UP  in  Albany  another  man  who  was  at 
that  time  editing  a  newspaper  had  a  fight  on 
his  hands,  not  so  desperately  against  over 
due  notes  as  against  a  most  powerful  polit 
ical  opposition.  That  man  was  Thurlow 
Weed,  and  his  opposition,  known  as  "The 
Albany  Regency,"  included  such  leaders  as 
Martin  Van  Buren,  William  L.  Marcy,  and 
Silas  Wright.  Weed  had  founded  the  Albany 
Evening  Journal  in  March,  1830,  and  for  sev 
eral  years  had  not  only  written  all  its  edi 
torial  articles,  but  had  reported  the  legisla 
tive  proceedings,  selected  the  miscellany,  col 
lected  the  local  news,  read  the  proofs,  and 
sometimes  made  up  the  forms  for  the  press. 
His  fight  in  the  first  presidential  campaign 
after  his  paper  was  founded  (in  1832)  ended 
in  the  loss  of  the  State  and  the  nation  by  his 
candidate,  Henry  Clay,  and  Marcy  defeated 
Seward  for  Governor  the  year  following. 
40 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

The  Whig  party,  as  the  National  Republi 
cans  had  come  to  be  called,  was  stunned  by 
these  defeats,  and  when  Harrison  ran  against 
Van  Buren  in  1836,  Van  Buren  carried  forty- 
two  of  the  fifty-six  counties  of  New  York 
State,  Massachusetts  wasted  her  vote  on  Web 
ster,  and  Van  Buren  carried  New  England 
and  had  a  popular  majority  over  his  three 
opponents.  But  the  Whigs  were  now  to  have 
as  an  ally  the  influence  most  potent,  perhaps, 
in  the  politics  of  a  republic — a  financial  panic 
and  an  era  of  hard  times.  How  potent  this 
influence  is  in  shaping  the  fortunes  of  parties 
and  candidates  the  history  of  the  United 
States  has  proved  in  later  years.  On  Presi 
dent  Van  Buren  was  laid  the  responsibility 
for  the  long  list  of  business  failures,  the 
monetary  evils,  and  the  commercial  stagna 
tion.  "What  constitutional  or  legal  justifi 
cation  can  Mr.  Van  Buren  offer  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  for  having  brought  upon 
them  all  their  present  difficulties  1  "  was  the 
language  of  a  remonstrance  drawn  up  by  a 
committee  of  New  York  city  merchants,  in 
April,  1837.  In  the  following  November  the 
Whigs  (in  an  "off-year  ")  carried  New  York 
city  for  the  first  time,  as  well  as  county  after 
county  in  the  State  that  had  been  considered 
Democratic  beyond  attack,  and  elected  100 
41 


Horace  Greeley 


of  the  128  members  of  the  Assembly  voted 
for. 

Weed  and  his  associates  in  the  Whig 
party  leadership  saw  in  this  change  of  public 
feeling  hope  of  electing  a  Whig  Governor  in 
New  York  in  1838,  as  well  as  a  Whig  Presi 
dent  in  1840,  and  they  looked  on  a  cheap 
weekly  newspaper,  which  would  vigorously 
espouse  their  cause  and  keep  the  voters  in 
formed  and  stirred  up,  as  a  necessary  part 
of  their  campaign  equipment. 

"In  looking  about  for  an  editor,"  says 
Weed  in  his  autobiography,  "it  occurred  to 
me  that  there  was  some  person  connected 
with  the  New  Yorker  possessing  the  qualities 
needed  for  our  new  enterprise.  In  reading 
the  New  Yorker  attentively,  as  I  had  done, 
I  felt  sure  that  its  editor  was  a  strong  tariff 
man,  and  probably  an  equally  strong  Whig. 
I  repaired  to  the  office  in  Ann  Street  where 
the  New  Yorker  was  published,  and  inquired 
for  its  editor.  A  young  man  with  light  hair 
and  blond  complexion,  with  coat  off  and 
sleeves  rolled  up,  standing  at  the  case, 
1  stick '  in  hand,  replied  that  he  was  the  ed 
itor,  and  this  youth  was  Horace  Greeley." 

Greeley  accompanied  Weed  and  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Whig  State  Committee,  who  was 
with  him,  to  their  hotel,  where,  after  the  nec- 
42 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

essary  explanations,  it  was  arranged  that 
Greeley  should  edit  at  Albany  a  small  weekly 
paper  to  be  called  the  Jeffersonian,  for 
which  service  he  was  to  receive  $1,000  a  year, 
the  expense  of  the  publication  to  be  met  by 
some  Whigs  of  means.  Only  a  man  of  Gree 
ley  's  indomitable  energy  and  willingness  to 
work  to  the  utmost  limit  of  his  strength 
would  have  undertaken  this  task  in  addition 
to  the  labor  of  editing  the  New  Yorker.  He 
understood  that  he  would  be  obliged  to  spend 
nearly  all  his  time  in  Albany  when  the  Legis 
lature  was  in  session,  and  half  his  time  in 
summer;  and  as  Albany  was  not  then  con 
nected  with  New  York  by  rail,  the  trip  there 
and  back,  to  a  tired  man,  was  no  small  un 
dertaking.  But  Greeley  did  not  even  ask 
time  to  consider  the  matter.  His  first  trip  to 
the  State  capital  was  made  in  a  sleigh,  and 
of  his  routine  he  wrote  seven  years  later:  "I 
regularly  went  up  to  Albany  Saturday  night, 
made  up  my  paper  there  by  Tuesday  night, 
took  the  boat  down  and  got  out  my  New 
Yorker  by  Friday;  then  prepared  copy  for 
part  of  my  next  number,  and  caught  my 
valise  for  Albany  again."  As  a  further  illus 
tration  of  his  industry,  we  find  this  remark 
in  his  Busy  Life:  "As  my  small  [Albany] 
paper  did  not  require  all  my  time,  I  made 
43 


Horace  Greeley 


condensed  reports  of  the  Assembly  debates 
for  the  Evening  Journal,  and  wrote  some  ar 
ticles  for  its  editorial  columns." 

The  political  friendship — partnership,  it 
has  been  called — thus  begun  between  Weed 
and  Greeley  lasted  until  1854,  or,  so  far  as 
Weed  was  concerned,  until  the  nomination  of 
Lincoln  in  1860.  Their  usefulness  as  co- 
workers  can  not  easily  be  overestimated. 
Weed  was  the  cool,  calculating,  far-seeing  pol 
itician,  who  would  leave  unsaid  or  undone 
what  it  was  right  to  say  or  to  do,  if  this 
would  favor  his  party's  success,  and  who 
worked  for  ends,  without  a  constant  criticism 
of  means.  Greeley  was  not  nearly  so  far- 
seeing  in  political  matters  as  he  was  credited 
with  being,  but  he  was  desperately  honest  in 
his  convictions,  and  eminently  fitted  to  give 
them  expression.  As  illustrations  of  Weed's 
foresight  may  be  recalled  his  advice  against 
the  defeat  of  Van  Buren's  nomination  to  the 
English  mission  because  this  was  likely  to 
make  him  the  candidate  for  Vice-President, 
as  it  did.  Weed  urged  Webster  to  take  the 
nomination  for  Vice-President  on  the  Harri 
son,  and  again  on  the  Taylor  ticket,  but  in 
vain;  if  Webster  had  followed  this  advice, 
his  ambition  to  be  President  would  have  been 
gratified.  Weed  personally  favored  a  United 
44 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

States  Bank,  but  he  would  not  print  in  the 
Evening  Journal,  in  1836,  Webster's  speech 
at  a  Whig  mass  meeting,  in  Boston,  in  sup 
port  of  the  bank  scheme,  and  against  Jack 
son's  veto,  saying  that  two  sentences  in  the 
veto  message  would  carry  ten  votes  against 
the  bank  to  one  gained  for  it  by  Webster's 
eloquence — viz.,  that  our  Government  "was 
endangered  by  the  circumstance  that  a  large 
amount  of  the  stock  of  the  United  States 
Bank  was  owned  in  Europe,"  and  that  the 
bank  was  designed  "to  make  the  rich  richer 
and  the  poor  poorer." 

Weed  has  been  severely  criticized  for  the 
defeat  of  Clay  in  the  National  Convention  of 
1839.  Clay  received  early  assurance  that 
Weed  was  "warmly  and  zealously  "  in  favor 
of  his  election,  and  Shepard,  in  his  Martin 
Van  Buren,  says  that  "the  slaughter  of 
Henry  Clay  had  been  effected  by  the  now 
formidable  Whig  politicians  of  New  York, 
cunningly  marshaled  by  Thurlow  Weed." 
Weed  did  work  against  the  election  of  Clay 
delegates  to  the  convention,  but  he  did  so  be 
cause  he  foresaw  that  Clay  would  probably 
be  defeated  at  the  polls,  and  that  there  was  a 
good  chance  of  Harrison's  election;  and  he 
proved  himself  a  wise  friend  of  Clay  by  ur 
ging  him,  in  the  campaign  of  1844,  to  write 
45 


Horace  Greeley 


no  letters,  advice  that  was  disregarded  with 
disastrous  consequences.  Greeley  who,  as  he 
expressed  it,  "profoundly  loved  Henry 
Clay,"  and  looked  for  his  nomination,  de 
fended  Weed  in  this  matter  in  his  Busy  Life, 
years  after  their  political  partnership  was  dis 
solved,  saying,  "If  politics  do  not  meditate  the 
achievement  of  beneficent  ends  through  the 
choice  and  use  of  the  safest  and  most  effect 
ive  means,  I  wholly  misapprehend  them." 

But  while  Greeley  would  not  urge  the 
nomination  of  his  own  favorite  when  he 
thought  that  favorite  would  be  a  weak  candi 
date,  he  would  not  follow  Weed  in  his  views 
of  expediency.  Thus  we  find  him  saying,  in 
one  of  his  early  letters  to  Weed:  "I  think  you 
take  the  wrong  view  of  the  political  bearing 
of  this  matter,  though  I  act  without  reference 
to  that "  (the  italics  are  his),  and  Weed  was 
powerless  to  repress  Greeley's  advocacy  of 
what  he  considered  vagaries  in  the  Tribune. 

Weed  says  that  he  found  Greeley  in 
the  early  years  of  their  acquaintance,  when 
they  were  most  intimate,  "unselfish,  conscien 
tious,  public-spirited,  and  patriotic.  He  had 
no  habits  or  taste  but  for  work — steady, 
indomitable  work."  *  The  young  man  was  at 

1  Lewis  Gaylord  Clark,  in  the  Knickerbocker,  said  of  Gree 
ley  :  "  A  man  careless,  it  may  be.  of  the  style  of  his  dress,  pre- 

46 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

that  time  by  no  means  unknown  out  of  his 
own  office  in  New  York  city.  He  had  taken 
as  practical  an  interest  in  political  meetings 
as  his  time  would  allow,  and  had  so  far  over 
come  the  feeling  of  ridicule  with  which  his 
first  appearance  had  been  greeted,  that  he 
had  been  offered  (and  declined)  a  place  on 
the  city  Assembly  ticket.  His  pen,  too,  was 
in  demand,  and  for  editorial  contributions  to, 
and  for  a  time  the  practical  supervision  of, 
the  Daily  Whig,  a  short-lived  journal,  he  re 
ceived  a  salary  of  $12  a  week.1 

The  first  number  of  the  Jeffersonian  was 
issued  on  February  17,  1838,  with  Horace 
Greeley's  name  as  editor  under  the  title.  Its 
prospectus  announced  its  purpose  to  be  "to 
supply  a  notorious  and  vital  deficiency — to 
furnish  counties  and  neighborhoods  not 
otherwise  provided  with  correct  and  reliable 
information  upon  political  subjects,"  at  a 

ferring  comfort  to  fashion,  but  yet  of  scrupulous  cleanliness  in 
person  and  habiliments  always;  possessing  a  benevolent  heart, 
and  '  clothed  with  charity  as  with  a  garment ' ;  frank  and  fear 
less  in  the  expression  of  his  opinions,  whether  such  opinions  are 
to  be  praised  or  execrated ;  of  infatigable  industry,  and  unpre 
tending,  kindly  manners — this  is  Horace  Greeley." 

1  Greeley,  in  a  letter  to  R.  W.  Griswold  dated  March  18, 
1839,  said :  "  I  think  better  of  my  new  pet,  the  Whig.  I  write 
the  editorial  for  that,  and  edit  it  generally.  Don't  you  think 
it  better  than  formerly  f  If  not,  it's  wretched  bad,  that's  a 
fact.  It  is  rather  gaining  in  patronage." 

47 


Horace  Greeley 


price  within  the  reach  of  all  (six  subscrip 
tions  for  $3).  It  was  not  to  be  a  mere  party 
organ,  but  would  print  the  views  of  public 
men  on  both  sides.  The  Jeffersonian  was 
an  eight-page  quarto,  containing  usually  a 
page  of  editorial  discussion,  the  text  of  im 
portant  speeches  in  Congress,  reports  of  the 
proceedings  of  Congress  and  of  the  Legisla 
ture,  and  a  summary  of  general  news.  The 
modern  reader  would  pronounce  it  dull,  with 
its  columns  of  speeches  and  by  no  means 
"sparkling"  editorials.  One  of  the  notable 
contrasts  between  the  political  journals  of 
those  days  and  of  the  present  is  found  in  the 
vastly  greater  importance  which  editors  then 
attributed  to  speeches  at  Washington  and 
Albany.  The  editor  in  the  thirties  and  for 
ties  placed  such  matter,  as  well  as  full  re 
ports  of  legislative  business,  at  the  head  of 
his  list  of  "reliable  information  upon  polit 
ical  subjects."  Nowadays  the  compliment  of 
printing  in  full  a  speech  made  in  Congress 
or  the  Legislature  is  rarely  paid,  and  the 
largest  daily  papers  do  not  give  a  complete 
summary  of  the  proceedings  of  Congress,  al 
lowing  their  special  correspondents  to  serve 
up  to  their  readers  only  the  most  entertain 
ing  subjects. 

Greeley   was    a   member   of   the   Young 
48 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

Men's  Whig  State  Committee,  and  after  the 
nominations  were  made,  the  Jeffersonian 
warmed  up  to  its  campaign,  work.  Here  is 
one  of  its  appeals  to  the  Whigs  of  New  York : 
"The  eyes  and  the  hopes  of  the  Union 
are  now  upon  New  York.  The  Empire 
State  must  determine  the  great  question  at 
issue  between  the  People  and  the  Usurpers. 
She  is  the  last  and  only  barrier  between 
FKEEDOM  and  DESPOTISM.  She  must  breast 
the  shock  alone."  The  Whigs  carried  New 
York  State  by  15,000  and  elected  Seward  Gov 
ernor  in  1838  by  about  38,000,  and  as  the 
15,000  copies  of  the  Jeffersonian  circulated 
principally  among  readers  who  had  no  other 
paper,  Greeley's  modest  assumption  that  "it 
did  good  "  will  not  be  disputed.  The  suspen 
sion  of  the  publication  was  announced  in  the 
issue  of  February  9,  1839. 

In  the  next  two  years  the  Whig  cause  did 
not  flourish,  almost  all  the  States  which  voted 
in  1839  showing  a  return  to  the  Democrats, 
New  York  remaining  Whig  by  a  reduced  ma 
jority.  Harrison  received  the  nomination  for 
President  in  the  first  Whig  National  Conven 
tion,  in  1839,  and  one  of  the  most  exciting 
campaigns  in  the  history  of  the  country  fol 
lowed.  "Give  Harrison  a  log  cabin  and  a 
barrel  of  hard  cider,  and  he  will  stay  con- 
5  49 


Horace  Greeley 


tented  in  Ohio,  and  not  aspire  to  the  presi 
dency,"  was  the  unfortunate  sneer  of  a 
Democratic  editor.  From  that  day  "log 
cabin  "  and  "hard  cider  "  became  Whig  rally 
ing  cries,  and  successful  ones,  as  the  result 
proved. 

Greeley's  editorship  of  the  Jeffersonian 
had  so  satisfied  the  party  managers  at  Al 
bany — and  shrewder  ones  never  held  council 
— that  they  selected  him  to  conduct  a  Harri 
son  campaign  paper,  to  be  published  in  New 
York  city,  and  to  be  called  the  Log  Cabin. 
The  first  number  of  this  paper — a  folio,  15  by 
28  inches — dated  New  York  and  Albany,  ap 
peared  on  May  2,  1840,  the  title  line  contain 
ing  a  picture  of  a  log  cabin,  with  a  cider  bar 
rel  beside  it,  and  a  Harrison-Tyler  flag  wa 
ving  in  front.  The  subscription  price  was 
fifty  cents  for  six  months,  or  seven  copies  for 
three  dollars ;  single  copies  costing  two  cents. 
The  publishers  described  it  as  "a  political 
and  general  newspaper,  to  be  devoted  to  the 
dissemination  of  truth,  the  refutation  of  slan 
der  and  calumny,  and  the  vindication,  by  fair 
and  full  citations  from  the  recorded  history 
of  our  country,  of  the  character  and  fame  of 
one  of  her  noblest  and  most  illustrious  patri 
ots"  (Harrison). 

The  Log  Cabin  was  a  lively  campaign 
50 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

paper.  It  printed  in  full  the  leading  speeches 
of  the  day,  made  a  feature  of  the  campaign 
news  of  the  different  States,  gave,  with  every 
number,  the  words  and  music  of  a  campaign 
song  (Weed  thought  the  music  unnecessary), 
and  used  illustrations  occasionally.  The 
Democrats  opened  the  campaign  with  a  vol 
ley  of  attacks  on  General  Harrison,  belittling 
his  military  and  civil  capacity,  and  raking  up 
for  use  against  him  every  public  expression 
of  his  that  would  serve  their  purpose.  The 
Log  Cabin  defended  its  candidate  vigorous 
ly,  under  such  headings  as  "Another  Slander 
Nailed,"  "The  Devices  of  Baseness,"  and 
urged  non-partizan  voters  to  support  Harri 
son  because  he  was  the  representative  of 
Madison's  view  "that  a  President  who  should 
remove  officers  for  political  opinions  alone 
would  be  justly  liable  to  impeachment."  The 
Log  Cabin  announced  that  it  would  not  print 
articles  "assailing  the  private  character  of 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  or  any  of  his  supporters," 
but  in  doing  so  it  gave  this  keen  thrust:  "We 
do  not  think  it  at  all  material  to  the  present 
contest  to  prove  Mr.  Van  Buren  a  slippery 
lawyer,  dishonest  as  a  man,  or  incorrect  in 
private  life.  We  have  no  warfare  with  him 
as  an  individual."  As  election  day  ap 
proached,  the  paper's  efforts  in  behalf  of  its 
51 


Horace  Greeley 


ticket  became  more  and  more  earnest,  and  it 
closed  the  campaign  with  an  appeal  to  "Free 
men!  "  "Americans!  "  in  which  it  said:  "The 
hour  of  deliverance  has  come.  .  .  .  Press  on 
to  the  polls.  Speak  to  your  friends  and  your 
neighbors.  Implore  the  doubtful  and  hesi 
tating  to  give  one  vote  now  for  their  country, 
and  as  many  as  they  please  hereafter  for 
their  party."  Harrison  received  234  of  the 
294  electoral  votes,  and  no  one  will  dispute 
Greeley's  modest  remark,  "I  judge  that  there 
were  not  many  who  had  done  more  effective 
work  in  the  canvass  than  I." 

The  Log  Cabin  was  a  remarkable  success 
in  one  respect  from  the  start.  An  edition  of 
30,000  of  the  first  number  was  exhausted  be 
fore  the  close  of  the  week,  and  10,000  more 
did  not  satisfy  the  demand.  Later  editions 
of  80,000  were  printed,  that  being  the  limit, 
not  of  the  demand,  but  of  the  editor's  press 
room  facilities.  Greeley  had,  when  the  pub 
lication  of  the  Log  Cabin  was  begun,  taken 
one  of  his  many  partners  in  the  firm  of  Hor 
ace  Greeley  &  Co.,  which  published  the  New 
Yorker,  but  the  new  partner  was  so  alarmed 
by  the  rush  of  subscribers,  in  connection  with 
the  low  subscription  price,  that  he  soon  re 
tired.  An  extra  number  of  the  Log  Cabin 
was  issued  on  November  9,  giving  the  elec- 

52 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

tion  returns,  and  a  prospectus  was  published 
announcing  that,  yielding  to  urgent  requests, 
the  editor  would  soon  begin  a  new  series  of 
the  paper,  the  subscription  price  of  which 
would  be  $1.50  per  annum.  The  first  number 
of  this  new  series  was  dated  December  5, 
1840,  and  the  last  number  November  20, 1841, 
when  it  was  succeeded  by  the  Weekly  Tribune. 
With  good  business  management,  a  paper 
with  the  circulation  of  the  Log  Cabin  should 
have  made  money  for  its  proprietors.  Even 
in  those  days  advertising  might  have  been 
secured.1  The  experience  in  trusting  sub 
scribers  of  the  New  Yorker  had  not  been  a 
sufficient  warning,  and  again  credit  was 
given,  to  be  followed  by  another  appeal  to 
"friends  who  owe  us,"  saying,  "We  implore 
you  to  do  us  justice,  and  enable  us  to  do  the 
same."  Greeley  was  never  a  good  business 
man,  and  it  would  have  required  a  man  of 
extraordinary  business,  as  well  as  literary, 
ability  to  do  the  work  he  did  in  New  York 
city  and  Albany  from  1838  to  1841,  with  two 
journals  almost  constantly  on  his  hands,  and 
taking  an  active  part  in  committee  work,  ma- 

1  The  Log  Cabin  in  most  of  its  numbers  published  less  than 
a  column  of  advertisements,  increasing  them  to  three  and  a 
half  columns  for  a  short  time  in  November.  The  Herald  in 
1840  printed  from  ten  to  fifteen  columns  a  day. 

53 


Horace  Greeley 


king  speeches,  and  receiving  the  hundreds  of 
people  who  came  to  him  with  suggestions  or 
for  advice.  In  illustration  of  his  business 
methods  Parton  relates  that,  one  spring  day, 
after  getting  the  mail  from  the  post-office, 
Greeley  put  it  into  his  overcoat  pocket,  forgot 
all  about  it,  and  left  his  coat  hanging  on  the 
peg  until  autumn,  when  he  had  occasion  to 
use  it  again.  Then  he  discovered  the  letters 
containing  enclosures  about  which  the  wri 
ters  had  been  for  months  inquiring  in  vain. 
His  partners  who,  he  says,  "were  no  help  to 
me,"  withdrew,  one  after  another.  But  the 
Log  Cabin  did  afford  some  pecuniary  aid,  and 
he  wrote  to  Weed  in  January,  1841,  that  he 
was  beginning  "to  feel  quite  snug  and  com 
fortable,"  and  by  the  spring  of  that  year  he 
considered  himself  in  a  position  to  start  the 
Tribune.  But  the  New  Yorker  was  a  weight 
on  his  hands  to  the  last.  He  gave  its  editorial 
conduct  more  largely  to  assistants  in  its  last 
years,  and  tried  hard  to  sell  it,  and  its  end 
came  when  it  was  superseded  in  September, 
1841,  by  the  weekly  issue  of  the  Tribune. 
He  was  then  able  to  repay  what  was  owing 
to  subscribers  who  had  paid  in  advance,  al 
though  his  books  showed  that  $10,000  was 
due  him  from  delinquents.  These  books,  he 
says,  he  never  opened  again,  and  they  were 
54 


Thurlow  Weed's  Discovery 

"  dissolved  in  smoke  and  flame "  when  his 
office  was  burned  in  1845. 

Greeley  names  four  causes  of  the  New 
Yorker's  financial  failure :  That  it  was  never 
properly  advertised,  that  "it  was  never  really 
published/'  the  credit  system  with  subscri 
bers,  and  the  lack  of  such  facilities  for  dis 
tribution  as  railroads  and  news-companies 
afford  to-day.  Certainly  it  was  "never  really 
published,"  and  the  want  of  good  business 
management  made  its  financial  success  im 
possible. 


55 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   FOUNDING   OF   THE   NEW   YOKK   TRIBUNE 

"I  CHERISH  the  hope  that  the  stone  which 
covers  my  ashes  may  bear  to  future  eyes  the 
still  intelligent  inscription,  'Founder  of  the 
New  York  Tribune.7 " 

So  wrote  Greeley  in  his  chapter  on  the 
Tribune  in  his  Busy  Life.  In  truth,  the 
Tribune  was  his  lasting  monument.  He  had 
qualified  himself  to  edit  it.  He  had  the  cour 
age  to  found  it.  He  made  it  a  greater  power 
than  has  ever  been  exercised  by  another 
newspaper  in  the  United  States.  He  identi 
fied  his  own  name  with  it  as  no  other  editor 
has  been  personally  identified  with  the  jour 
nal  committed  to  his  charge. 

Greeley  had  entered  on  his  thirty-first 
year  when  the  first  number  of  the  Tribune 
was  issued,  and  had  been  a  resident  of  New 
York  city  less  than  ten  years.  In  these  years 
he  had  fought  a  desperate  fight  with  poverty, 
almost  unaided.  But  he  had  secured  a  recog 
nition  not  only  in  the  city  and  State,  but  in 
a  wider  circle.  His  editorial  writing  in  the 
56 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 

New  Yorker  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
so  competent  a  critic  as  Thurlow  Weed.  His 
residence  at  Albany  had  widened  his  ac 
quaintance  with  the  lawmakers  gathered 
from  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  with  the 
State  officials  and  the  managers  of  both  par 
ties.  There  was  probably  not  another  man 
in  this  country  who  was  then  editing  two 
newspapers,  and  the  editor  of  one  news 
paper  was  a  person  to  be  pointed  out  in  those 
days.  The  big  circulation  of  the  Log  Cabin 
had  still  further  increased  his  reputation,  and 
in  1841  he  received  an  urgent  invitation  to 
assume  the  editorship  of  the  Madisonian,  a 
weekly  which  it  was  proposed  to  publish  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  as  an  Administration 
daily,  and  to  which  he  afterward  contributed. 
He  was  therefore  justified  in  his  belief  that 
(if  he  referred  to  editorial  experience)  he 
"was  in  a  better  position  to  undertake  the 
establishment  of  a  daily  newspaper  than  the 
great  mass  of  those  who  try  it  and  fail."  As 
to  his  finances,  he  had  a  capital  of  about 
$2,000,  half  of  it  in  printing  material.  A 
daily  newspaper  in  New  York  required  much 
less  capital  in  those  days  than  now,  but  a 
man  of  more  careful  business  instincts  would 
have  hesitated  to  embark  in  the  enterprise 
with  so  restricted  resources. 
57 


Horace  Greeley 


Greeley  had  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  kind 
of  daily  paper  that  he  wanted  to  edit.  In  a 
letter  to  Weed  in  January,  1841,  he  said:  "As 
for  the  country  press,  two-thirds  of  it  is  a 
nuisance  and  a  positive  curse — a  mere  mouth 
piece  for  demagogues  who  are  ravenous  for 
spoils.  .  .  .  What  good  have  such  papers  as 
[naming  some]  and  many  more  of  that 
stamp,  done  us?  ...  I  do  believe  they  are 
all  a  positive  failure — that  any  paper  in  bad 
or  injudicious  hands  is  so."  His  purpose  in 
publishing  the  Tribune  is  thus  set  forth  in 
his  Busy  Life:  "My  leading  idea  was  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  journal  removed  alike  from 
servile  partizanship  on  the  one  hand,  and 
from  gagging,  mincing  neutrality  on  the 
other." 

The  rivalry  that  he  had  to  face  may  be 
understood  from  the  following  list  of  news 
papers  published  in  New  York  city  in  No 
vember,  1842,  with  their  estimated  circula 
tion,  as  given  in  Hudson's  Journalism  in  the 
United  States: 


Cash  Papers 

Herald,  2  cents 15,000 

Sun,  1  cent 20,000 

Aurora,  2  cents 5,000 

Morning  Post,  2  cents.  3,000 

Plebeian,  2  cents 2,000 

58 


Chronicle,  1  cent 5,000 

Tribune,  2  cents 9,500 

Union,  2  cents 1,000 

Tattler,  1  cent 2,000 

62,500 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 


Sunday  Papers 

Atlas 3,500 

Times 1,500 

Mercury 3,000 

News 500 

Sunday  Herald 9,000 


17,500 

Wall  Street  Papers 

Courier  and  Enquirer..  7,000 

Journal  of  Commerce  .  7,500 

Express 6,000 

American} 1,800 


Commercial  Advertiser    5,000 

Evening  Post 2,500 

Standard. .  400 


30,200 

Saturday  Papers 

Brother  Jonathan 5,000 

New  World 8,000 

Spirit  of  the  Times 1,500 

Whip 4,000 

Flash 1,500 

Rake 1,000 

21,000 


The  Courier  and  Enquirer,  Commercial 
Advertiser,  American,  and  Express  favored 
the  Whig  cause,  but  their  price,  as  was  that 
of  the  Evening  Post  and  Journal  of  Com 
merce,  of  the  opposition,  was  $10  per  annum, 
and  they  were  commercial  rather  than  polit 
ical  and  general  newspapers,  as  Hudson's 
classification  shows.  The  Herald,  then  six 
years  old,  and  the  Sun,  eight  years  old,  while 
independent  in  name,  were  anti-Whig  in  sen 
timent,  and  not  in  good  moral  repute,  and 
Greeley  found  encouragement  in  the  advice 
of  Whigs  who  thought  the  field  for  a  cheap 
Whig  daily  a  good  one. 

Having  decided  on  his  venture,  he  ob 
tained  a  loan  of  $1,000  from  his  friend  James 
Coggeshall,  to  add  to  his  own  little  capital, 
59 


Horace  Greeley 


and  promises  of  more,  which  he  did  not  get. 
Then  he  printed  in  the  Log  Cabin  of  April 
3,  1841,  an  announcement  that  on  April  10 
he  would  publish  the  first  number  "of  a  new 
morning  journal  of  politics,  literature,  and 
general  intelligence,"  adding:  "The  Tribune, 
as  its  name  imports,  will  labor  to  advance 
the  interests  of  the  people,  and  to  promote 
their  moral,  social,  and  political  well-being. 
The  immoral  and  degrading  police  reports, 
advertisements,  and  other  matter  which 
have  been  allowed  to  disgrace  the  columns 
of  our  leading  penny  papers,  will  be  care 
fully  excluded  from  this,  and  no  exertion 
spared  to  render  it  worthy  of  the  hearty 
approval  of  the  virtuous  and  refined, 
and  a  welcome  visitant  at  the  family  fire 
side." 

Greeley's  hopes  for  the  success  of  his 
journal  rested  largely  on  expectations  of  fu 
ture  Whig  ascendency,  raised  by  the  election 
of  General  Harrison  to  the  presidency.  How 
nearly  the  death  of  the  President,  which  oc 
curred  on  April  4,  came  to  checking  the  Trib 
une  enterprise  Greeley  explained  in  a  brief 
autobiography,  dated  April  14,  1845,  which 
was  published  after  his  death:  "In  1841  I 
issued  the  first  number  of  the  Daily  Tribune, 
which  I  should  not  have  done  had  I  not  is- 

60 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 

sued  a  prospectus  before  General  Harrison's 
death." 

The  birthday  of  the  Tribune  fell  on  the 
date  of  the  funeral  parade  held  in  New  York 
city  as  a  mark  of  mourning  for  the  President- 
It  was  a  day  of  sleet  and  snow,  and  every 
Whig  heart  was  bowed  down.  Friends  of  the 
editor  had  secured  for  him  less  than  five  hun 
dred  subscribers  in  advance,  but  an  edition 
of  five  thousand  was  printed,  and  of  these, 
Greeley  says,  "I  nearly  succeeded  in  giving 
away  all  of  them  that  would  not  sell."  The 
first  week's  receipts  were  only  $92,  with  which 
to  meet  an  outgo  of  $525 ;  but  by  the  close  of 
that  week  the  paper  had  two  thousand  paid 
subscriptions,  and  this  number  increased  at 
the  rate  of  five  hundred  a  week  until  a  total 
of  five  thousand  was  reached  on  May  22,  and 
the  growth  continued.  Writing  to  Weed  in 
June  of  that  year,  Greeley  said:  "I  am  get 
ting  on  as  well  as  I  know  how  with  the 
Tribune,  but  not  as  well  as  I  expected  or 
wished,"  and  he  called  the  giving  of  the  list 
of  letters  by  the  postmaster  to  Stone's  paper, 
"the  unkindest  cut  of  all."  In  a  note  to  E. 
W.  Griswold,  on  July  10,  he  said:  "I  am  poor 
as  a  church  mouse  and  not  half  so  saucy.  I 
have  had  losses  this  week,  and  am  perplexed 
and  afflicted.  But  better  luck  must  come.  I 
61 


Horace  Greeley 


am  fishing  for  a  partner."  Certainly  if  ever 
an  editor  needed  a  good  business  partner 
Greeley  did,  and  he  was  fortunate  in  finding 
one. 

Very  soon  after  this  note  was  written, 
Thomas  McElrath  surprised  him  with  an 
offer  to  become  his  partner  in  the  new  enter 
prise,  and  this  Greeley  gladly  accepted,  and 
the  announcement  of  the  new  firm  was  made 
on  July  31.  McElrath  contributed  $2,000  in 
cash  as  an  equivalent  for  a  half-interest. 
Not  until  this  arrangement  was  made  did 
Greeley  consider  the  paper  "fairly  on  its 
feet."  The  new  partner  was  a  member  of 
the  firm  of  McElrath  &  Bangs,  who  kept  a 
bookstore  under  the  printing-office  in  which 
Greeley  had  set  up  the  Testament,  and  his 
natural  business  tact  and  his  experience  sup 
plied  something  in  which  the  Tribune  editor 
was  always  lacking.  This  partnership  con 
tinued  for  more  than  ten  years.  Greeley  has 
called  McElrath's  business  management 
"never  brilliant  nor  specially  energetic,"  but 
so  "safe  and  judicious  "  that  it  lifted  the  re 
sponsibility  of  the  publication  office  from  the 
editor's  shoulders.  The  Weekly  Tribune  took 
the  place  of  the  New  Yorker  and  the  Log 
Cabin  on  September  20,  and  the  new  journal 
was  then  ready  to  address  both  city  and  rural 

62 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 

readers.  The  issue  of  a  semiweekly  edition 
was  begun  on  May  17,  1845. 

The  price  of  a  single  copy  of  the  daily 
during  the  first  year  was  one  cent,  which  did 
not  cover  the  cost  of  paper  and  printing, 
compelling  the  owners  to  look  for  their  prof 
its  to  the  advertisements.  Greeley  asserted, 
in  1868,  that  "no  journal  sold  for  a  cent  could 
ever  be  much  more  than  a  dry  summary  of 
the  most  important,  or  the  most  interesting, 
occurrences  of  the  day  " — a  view  which  many 
modern  newspaper  publishers  would  combat. 
The  price  was  doubled  with  the  beginning  of 
the  second  volume,  and  increased  to  three 
cents  in  1862,  and  to  four  cents  in  1865.  In 
1866  it  was  enlarged  to  its  present  size. 

The  Tribune's  rivals  gave  it  unintended 
assistance  at  the  start.  The  penny  Sun,  for 
instance,  finding  that  the  new  journal  was 
gaming  some  of  its  readers,  tried  to  hire  the 
Tribune's  carriers  to  give  up  its  distribution, 
and,  failing  in  this,  informed  newsdealers 
that  those  who  sold  the  Tribune  could  not 
handle  the  Sun.  This  action  stirred  up  a 
"war  "  between  the  two  papers,  in  which  the 
public  took  a  lively  interest,  and  attention 
was  thus  called  to  a  new  venture  which  was 
confessedly  so  serious  a  competitor. 

Before  he  had  begun  the  publication  of 
63 


Horace  Greeley 


the  Tribune  Greeley  had  hired  as  an  editorial 
assistant  on  the  New  Yorker  a  young  man 
who,  while  a  college  student  in  Vermont,  had 
been  a  valued  contributor  to  that  journal. 
This  was  Henry  J.  Raymond,  in  later  years 
the  founder  of  the  Tribune's  chief  local  com 
petitor,  the  Times,  and  an  antagonist  in 
views  social  and  political.  Greeley  has  said 
that  Raymond  showed  more  versatility  and 
ability  in  journalism  than  any  man  of  his  age 
whom  he  ever  met,  and  that  he  was  the  only 
one  of  his  assistants  with  whom  he  had  to 
remonstrate  "for  doing  more  work  than  any 
human  brain  and  frame  could  be  expected 
long  to  endure." * 

Under  this  management  the  Tribune  in 
its  first  year  forged  steadily  ahead,  winning 
more  and  more  of  the  public  attention,  if  not 
always  of  the  public  approval.  Greeley's 

1  Young  editors  who  grow  discouraged  under  criticisms  of 
their  first  work  may  find  encouragement  in  contrasting  this 
praise  of  Raymond's  practised  labor  with  the  following  descrip 
tion  by  Greeley  of  his  first  attempts  (given  in  a  private  letter) : 
"Raymond  is  a  good  fellow,  but  utterly  destitute  of  experi 
ence.  ...  He  went  to  work  as  a  novice  would,  shears  in  hand, 
and  cut  out  the  most  infernal  lot  of  newspaper  trash  ever  seen. 
He  got  in  type  a  column  of  Lord  Chatham,  which  you  pub 
lished  a  month  ago,  three  or  four  column  articles  of  amazing 
antiquity  and  stupidity,  and  then  gave  out  an  original  transla 
tion  of  a  notorious  story — which  I  fear  we  have  published  once. 
Thus  the  New  Yorker  is  doomed  for  this  week." 

64    < 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 

own  energy  was  tireless,  his  editorial  contri 
butions  averaging  three  columns  a  day. 
There  was  no  valuable  news  that  he  was 
afraid  to  print,  nothing  evil  in  his  view  that 
he  was  afraid  to  combat.  The  transcenden- 
talists  of  the  Boston  Dial,  to  which  Emerson 
and  Margaret  Fuller  contributed,  had  a  hear 
ing  in  his  columns,  and  the  doings  of  a  Mil- 
lerite  convention  found  publication.  Greeley 
himself  reported  a  celebrated  trial  at  Utica, 
sending  in  from  four  to  nine  columns  a  day. 
He  aroused  a  warm  discussion  by  character 
izing  "the  whole  moral  atmosphere  of  the 
theater  "  as  "unwholesome,"  and  refusing  to 
urge  his  readers  to  attend  dramatic  perform 
ances,  "as  we  would  be  expected  to  if  we  were 
to  solicit  and  profit  by  its  advertising  patron 
age."1  At  the  same  time  he  offended  the 
religious  element  by  publishing  advertise 
ments  of  unorthodox  books,  and  he  accom- 

1  Greeley  always  considered  the  stage  inimical  to  many  of 
his  pet  reforms.  He  remembered  a  song  that  he  heard  in  a 
theater  in  derision  of  temperance,  and  a  ridiculing  of  socialism 
by  John  Brougham,  and  he  thought  some  of  the  impersonators 
of  Irishmen  "  deserving  of  indictment  as  libelers  of  an  unlucky 
race."  In  summing  up  his  Dramatic  Memories  in  his  Busy 
Life,  he  said:  "I  judge  that  the  wise  man  is  he  who  goes  but 
once  to  the  theater,  and  keeps  the  impression  then  made  on  his 
mind  fresh  and  clear  to  the  close  of  his  life  " ;  but  he  had  faith 
in  a  future  stage  "  which  will  exert  a  benign  influence  over  the 
progress  and  destiny  of  our  race." 

6  65 


Horace  Greeley 

panied  an  advertisement  of  an  offer  of  $50 
for  the  best  tract  on  the  impropriety  of  dan 
cing  by  church  members,  with  an  offer  of 
prizes  of  his  own  for  the  best  tracts  on  such 
subjects  as  "The  rightfulness  and  consistency 
of  a  Christian's  spending  $5,000  to  $10,000  a 
year  on  appetites  and  enjoyments  of  himself 
and  family,  when  there  are  a  thousand  fam 
ilies  within  a  mile  of  him  who  are  compelled 
to  live  on  less  than  $200  a  year." 

To  a  modern  reader  who  runs  over  the 
pages  of  the  earlier  volumes  of  the  Tribune 
the  small  space  allotted  to  local  news  will  be 
noticeable.  One  reason  for  this  was  that  the 
smaller  city  did  not  then  supply  the  topics  of 
general  interest  to  be  found  in  the  daily  do 
ings  of  a  Greater  New  York.  Another  was 
Greeley's  refusal  to  cater  to  the  sensational, 
as  promised  in  his  prospectus.  What  we  call 
"yellow  journalism"  he  called  "the  Satanic 
press."  In  one  of  his  attacks  on  this  press 
he  said  (February  17,  1849) :  "Sometimes  it 
will  cant  in  dainty  terms  of  the  naughty 
ferocity  of  a  fist-fight  while  devoting  half  its 
columns  to  an  enormous  exaggeration  of  all 
the  details  of  that  fight,  and  tagging  thereto 
everything  that  can  serve  to  whet  the  vulgar 
appetite  for  such  exhibitions."  But  if  some 
big  event — like  a  meeting  in  behalf  of  the 
66 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 

Erie  Kailroad  or  a  political  gathering — re 
quired  attention,  the  report  of  the  Tribune 
of  those  days  would  do  credit  to  any  news 
paper  of  our  own. 

When  Greeley  attacked  a  contemporary 
for  some  cause  that  aroused  his  indignation, 
his  language  was  apt  to  descend  to  vitupera 
tion,  and  "villain,"  "old  villain,"  "escaped 
State-prison  bird,"  and  "deliberate  false 
hood  "  were  among  his  favorite  terms.  The 
following  on  the  result  of  a  libel  suit  against 
the  Herald,  is  an  illustration:  "The  ruffian 
has  got  his  deserts.  The  low-mouthed,  bla 
tant,  witless,  brutal  scoundrel  is  condemned 
— condemned,  too,  by  the  people.  Let  not  his 
sewer-sheet  roll  its  nastiness  and  filth  over 
the  'codfish  aristocracies,'  as  he  has  called 
them  for  fifteen  years." l 

1  "  I  remember  very  well  a  conversation  between  Mr.  Horace 
Greeley  and  my  father,  Mr.  Park  Benjamin,  during  a  railway 
journey  which  they  were  then  taking  to  fulfil  one  of  their 
numerous  lecture  engagements.  Mr.  Greeley  came  into  the 
car  where  we  were  seated  with  his  under  lip  sticking  out, 
and  evidently  in  a  very  disagreeable  frame  of  mind.  He 
seated  himself,  and  having  wrapped  his  legs  in  an  old  red 
blanket  which  he  always  carried  with  him,  looked  up  and  said : 
'  Benjamin,  that  man  Bennett  would  disgrace  a  pigsty.  I  have 
told  him  so  often  enough  for  him  to  become  convinced  of  the 
fact,  but  it  is  like  water  on  a  duck's  back.'  Mr.  Benjamin 
laughed,  and  replied :  *  Greeley,  you  are  the  bigger  fool  of  the 
two.  Don't  you  see  that  those  socdolagers  of  yours  only  serve 

67 


Horace  Greeley 


During  its  first  year  the  Tribune  pub 
lished  a  letter  on  the  trial  of  the  suit  for  libel 
brought  by  J.  Fenimore  Cooper  against 
Thurlow  Weed,  in  which  the  novelist  secured 
a  verdict  of  $400.  The  writer  of  this  letter 
remarked:  "The  value  of  Mr.  Cooper's  char 
acter,  therefore,  has  been  judicially  ascer 
tained.  It  is  worth  exactly  $400."  This  led 
Cooper  to  sue  Greeley  for  libel,  and  the  trial 
took  place  in  Saratoga,  in  December,  1842. 
Greeley  argued  his  own  case,  and  the  jury 
gave  the  plaintiff  a  verdict  for  $200.  As 
soon  as  this  result  was  announced,  Greeley 
took  a  sleigh  for  Troy,  where  he  caught  a 
boat,  and  early  the  next  morning  he  was  at 
his  desk  writing  his  own  report  of  the  trial. 
This  report,  which  filled  twelve  columns  of 
the  Tribune  of  December  12,  1842,  he  finished 
by  11  p.  M. — "the  best  single  day's  work  I 
ever  did."  Cooper  made  this  report  the 
ground  for  another  libel  suit,  but  that  suit 
never  came  to  trial. 

A  young  newspaper  can  secure  no  adver- 

to  advertise  him?  The  general  public  has  no  memory.  If 
you  want  to  make  a  man  prominent  in  New  York  city  abuse 
him.  The  public  will  forget  in  a  few  days  all  you  said  of  him, 
and  will  merely  remember  his  name.'  To  this  Mr.  Greeley 
replied,  '  I  think  you  are  right,  and  I  won't  bother  with  the 
hog  in  the  future.' "  The  Tribune  from  that  time  dropped  Ben 
nett. — (G.  H.  Benjamin,  in  New  York  Evening  Post.) 

68 


Founding  of  New  York  Tribune 

tising  more  effective  than  that  which  comes 
from  making  itself  talked  about,  and  the 
Tribune  was  soon  talked  of  more  widely  than 
any  other  American  newspaper.  Its  editor's 
personal  following  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  he  was  so  overrun  with  callers  that  he 
had  to  post  a  notice  limiting  visitors  to  the 
hours  between  8  and  9  A.  M.  and  5  and  6  p.  M. 
One  may  wonder  when  this  editor  of  a  morn 
ing  daily,  who  got  to  his  office  before  8  A.M., 
found  time  to  sleep.  "For  weeks  together," 
he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  November,  1841,  "my 
hour  of  quitting  work  has  varied  from  12  to 
2.30  A.  M.  This  is  killing,  especially  to  one 
whose  hours  have  been  regular  and  reason 
able  like  mine."  Subscriptions  and  adver 
tisements  kept  on  increasing,  so  that  in  its 
third  year  it  was  necessary  to  issue  supple 
mentary  pages,  to  accommodate  its  adver 
tisers.  The  issue  of  March  3,  1849,  contains 
this  notice:  "For  two  months  we  have  been 
obliged  to  leave  out  two  to  six  columns  of  ad 
vertisements  a  day  to  make  room  for  reading 
matter."  In  a  dispute  over  the  question  of 
circulation  with  the  Herald,  the  Tribune  thus 
stated  its  own  circulation  on  August  1,  1849 : 
Daily,  13,330;  weekly,  27,960;  semi,  1,660; 
California  edition,  1,920;  European,  480. 
The  circulation  of  the  daily  reached  45,000 
69 


Horace  Greeley 


before  the  war,  and  during  the  exciting  times 
of  that  conflict  it  mounted  to  90,000,  while 
the  weekly  edition  had  217,000  subscribers  in 
some  of  the  years  between  1860  and  1872. 
The  profits  in  1859  were  $86,000.  Of  its  earn 
ings  in  its  first  twenty-four  years  the  sum 
of  $382,000  was  invested  in  real  estate,  and 
an  average  of  $50,000  a  year  was  divided 
among  the  stockholders.1 

1  In  1850  Greeley  gave  an  example  of  the  consistency  of  his 
views  on  cooperation  by  making  the  Tribune  a  stock  concern, 
on  a  valuation  of  $100,000,  represented  by  100  shares  of  stock, 
some  20  of  which  were  sold  to  its  editors,  foremen,  and  assist 
ants  in  the  publication  office. 


70 


CHAPTER  V 

SOUKCES  OF  THE  TRIBUNE'S  INFLUENCE — 
GREELEY'S  PERSONALITY 

CONCEDING  that  the  Tribune  was  the  most 
influential  newspaper  in  this  country  in  Mr. 
Greeley's  day,  and  that  he,  as  almost  syn 
onymous  with  it,  was  the  most  influential 
editor,  it  is  interesting  to  glance  at  some  of 
the  sources  of  this  influence. 

It  must  be  granted  at  once  that  not  even 
an  editor  of  so  strong  a  personality  as  Gree- 
ley  could  have  secured  the  great  clientage 
that  came  to  be  recognized  as  his  if  he  had 
not  supplied  to  his  readers  a  good  news 
paper.  The  Tribune  was  a  good  newspaper 
almost  from  the  start.  Greeley's  versatility 
now  had  full  play,  and  he  could  not  only  hold 
the  attention  of  a  vast  audience  when  he  ad 
dressed  the  public  in  an  editorial,  but  could 
do  marvelous  pieces  of  reporting,  compose 
interesting  correspondence — as  witness  his 
letters  from  Europe  and  about  his  trip 
across  the  continent — and  act  as  chief  critic 
71 


Horace  Greeley 


over  all  the  columns  tinder  his  control.  To 
him,  therefore,  belonged  no  mere  honorary 
share  of  the  repute  of  the  Tribune  as  a  news 
paper. 

But  while  on  Greeley' s  shoulders  rested 
most  of  the  praise  or  blame  for  what  ap 
peared  in  its  columns,  his  associates,  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  took  no  unimportant  part 
in  the  making  of  the  paper.  In  his  first  chief 
assistant,  Eaymond,  he  secured  one  of  the 
ablest  journalists  of  the  day — a  man  who 
recognized  the  value  of  news,  who  knew  how 
to  select  capable  subordinates,  and  how  best 
to  direct  their  efforts.  Among  other  con 
tributors  and  editorial  assistants  to  whom 
the  Tribune  was  indebted  were  Margaret 
Fuller,  Bayard  Taylor,  George  William  Cur 
tis,  Edmund  Quincy  ("Byles "),  William 
Henry  Frye,  Hildreth,  the  historian,  and 
Charles  T.  Congdon.  Charles  A.  Dana 
joined  the  staff  in  1847,  and  remained  with 
it,  a  larger  part  of  the  time  as  managing  ed 
itor,  until  1862.  George  Kipley  began  wri 
ting  for  it  in  1861,  and,  outliving  Greeley, 
gave  to  its  literary  columns  for  twenty  years 
a  reputation  that  was  unrivaled.  Sidney 
Howard  Gay,  who  was  so  conscientious  an 
abolitionist  that  he  abandoned  his  plan  of 
becoming  a  lawyer  because  he  could  not  take 

72 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

the  oath  to  sustain  the  Federal  Constitution, 
but  to  whose  breadth  of  view  and  journalistic 
skill  credit  has  been  given  for  keeping  the 
Antislavery  Standard,  which  he  edited,  from 
being  either  narrow,  bigoted,  or  dull,  was  one 
of  Greeley's  associates  for  ten  years,  dating 
from  1858,  a  part  of  the  time  as  managing 
editor.  Along  with  these  worked  a  host  of 
others,  not  so  well  known,  who  kept  their  de 
partments  up  to  the  highest  mark. 

The  scent  for  news  was  as  keen  in  those 
days  as  it  is  now,  and,  while  the  difficulties 
of  obtaining  it  were  greater,  no  effort  was 
neglected  to  accomplish  the  object  in  view. 
Eailroads  were  then  in  their  infancy,  with 
less  than  3,000  miles  in  operation  in  this  coun 
try  in  1840.  The  first  steamers  to  Europe 
began  running  in  1838.  The  Morse  telegraph, 
was  first  operated  between  Baltimore  and 
Washington  in  1844,  and  the  first  telegraph 
office  was  opened  in  New  York  city,  at  No. 
16  Wall  Street,  in  January,  1846.  The  means 
then  employed  to  secure  news  quickly  from  a 
distance  were  what  was  called  the  special  ex 
press — relays  of  horses  and  riders,  the  latter 
sparing  neither  themselves  nor  their  steeds 
in  making  the  time  required  of  them.  The 
Tribune  files  contain  some  interesting  ac 
counts  of  the  time  made  by  its  express  riders. 
73 


Horace  Greeley 


To  obtain  a  Governor's  message  from  Albany 
the  Tribune  contracted  for  three  riders  and 
ten  relays  of  horses,  and  that  the  start  from 
Albany  should  be  made  at  noon,  and  New 
York  city  be  reached  not  later  than  10  p.  M. 
The  trip  was  finished  at  9  p.  M.,  a  speed  of  a 
little  less  than  eighteen  miles  an  hour  if  the 
first  rider  did  not  start  ahead  of  time — a 
point  about  which  the  Tribune  in  its  boast 
ing  of  the  feat  the  next  morning  could  not  be 
certain.  A  rider  charged  with  the  duty  of 
bringing  in  the  returns  of  a  Connecticut  elec 
tion  left  New  Haven,  in  a  sulky,  at  9.35  p.  M., 
on  the  arrival  of  the  "express  locomotive  " 
from  Hartford,  reached  Stamford  in  three 
hours;  there  encountered  a  snow-storm  and 
darkness  so  intense  that  he  ran  into  another 
conveyance  near  New  Eochelle  and  broke  a 
wheel;  took  the  harness  from  his  horse  and 
pressed  on  on  horseback,  arriving  at  the  office 
at  five  o'clock  the  next  morning.  The  most 
energetic  reporter  of  to-day  could  not  exceed 
this  rider  in  enterprise  and  persistency. 

The  ocean  steamers  of  those  days  were 
not  "greyhounds,"  and  so  great  was  the  com 
petition  for  the  earliest  foreign  news  that  en 
terprising  newspapers  did  not  wait  for  the 
arrival  of  the  mails  by  water  at  the  nearest 
home  port.  On  one  occasion,  when  news  of 

74 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

special  importance  was  awaited,  the  Tribune 
engaged  an  express  rider  to  meet  the  steamer 
(for  Boston)  at  Halifax,  and  convey  the  news 
package  with  all  speed  across  Nova  Scotia 
to  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  where  a  fast  steamboat 
was  to  meet  him  and  carry  him  to  Portland, 
Me.,  whence  a  special  locomotive  would  take 
him  to  Boston,  from  which  point  his  budget 
would  be  hastened  on  to  New  York  by  rail 
and  on  horseback.  Modern  enterprise  can 
not  hope  to  excel  this  scheme,  and  we  can 
sympathize  with  the  editor  in  its  failure  to 
save  him  from  being  "beaten."  The  rider 
made  his  way  across  Nova  Scotia  through 
drifts  so  deep  that  his  sleigh  was  often  up 
set,  and  was  hurried  across  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
through  ice  in  some  places  eighteen  inches 
thick,  making  Boston  in  thirty-one  hours 
from  Halifax — several  hours  ahead  of  the 
ocean  steamer.  But  from  that  point  delays 
were  encountered,  and,  although  the  last 
rider  made  the  trip  from  New  Haven  in  four 
hours  and  a  half,  a  rival  journal  had  had 
the  news  on  the  street  for  two  hours  before 
him.  When  Henry  Clay  delivered  an  im 
portant  speech  on  the  Mexican  "War,  in  Lex 
ington,  Ky.,  on  November  13,  1847,  the  Trib 
une's  report  of  it  was  carried  to  Cincinnati 
by  horse  express,  and  thence  transmitted  by 
75 


Horace  Greeley 


wire,  appearing  in  the  edition  of  November 
15.  During  the  Mexican  War  a  pony  express 
carried  the  news  from  New  Orleans  to  Peters 
burg,  Va.,  the  nearest  telegraph  station,  in 
this  way  delivering  the  New  Orleans  papers 
of  March  29  at  the  telegraph  office  on  Feb 
ruary  4.  The  exploits  of  these  expresses 
were  described  by  the  press  all  over  the  coun 
try,  and  all  this  gave  the  competing  journals 
a  big  advertisement. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  what  did  as 
much  as  anything  to  widen  Greeley's  reputa 
tion,  and  to  advertise  his  journal  in  its  early 
days,  was  his  devotion  to  "isms."  One  of 
his  laudators  had  insisted  that  he  had  only 
two  of  these,  but  that  assumption  did  him  an 
injustice.  "No  other  public  teacher,"  to  quote 
his  own  words,  "lives  so  wholly  in  the  pres 
ent  as  the  editor ;  and  the  noblest  affirmations 
of  unpopular  truth — the  most  self-sacrificing 
defiance  of  a  base  and  selfish  public  senti 
ment  that  regards  only  the  most  sordid  ends, 
and  values  every  utterance  solely  as  it  tends 
to  preserve  quiet  and  contentment,  while  the 
dollars  fall  jingling  into  the  merchants' 
drawer,  the  land-jobbers'  vault,  and  the 
miser's  bag — can  but  be  noted  in  their  day, 
and  with  their  day  be  forgotten."  Herein  we 
get  Greeley's  idea  of  "isms,"  a  conception  not 

76 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

unlike  Carlyle's  definition  of  a  certain  abbot's 
Catholicism — "something  like  the  isms  of  all 
true  men  in  all  true  centuries." 

The  Tribune  was  started  when,  in  the 
words  of  John  Morley,  "a  great  wave  of  hu 
manity,  of  benevolence,  of  desire  for  im 
provement — a  great  wave  of  social  senti 
ment,  in  short — poured  itself  among  all  who 
had  the  faculty  of  large  and  disinterested 
thinking  " ;  a  day  when  Pusey  and  Thomas 
Arnold,  Carlyle  and  Dickens,  Cobden  and 
O'Connell,  were  arousing  new  interest  in  old 
subjects;  when  the  communistic  experiments 
in  Brazil  and  Owen's  project  at  Hopedale  in 
spired  expectation  of  social  improvement; 
when  Southey  and  Coleridge  meditated  a 
migration  to  the  shores  of  America  to  assist 
in  the  foundation  of  an  ideal  society,  and 
when  philosophers  on  the  continent  of  Eu 
rope  were  believing  that  things  dreamed  of 
were  at  last  to  be  realized.  Greeley's  mind 
was  naturally  receptive  of  new  plans  for  re 
form — a  tendency  inherited,  perhaps,  from 
his  New  England  place  of  birth,  "that  land 
in  which  every  ism  of  social  or  religious  life 
has  had  its  origin."  The  hard  experience  of 
his  own  family,  as  he  shared  it  in  his  early 
boyhood,  led  him  to  think  that  something  was 
wrong  somewhere  in  man's  struggle  for  ex- 
77 


Horace  Greeley 

istence,  and  his  observations  among  the  city 
poor  during  the  hard  times  of  1837  enlisted 
his  sympathies  in  behalf  of  all  who  live  by 
labor.  When,  therefore,  he  found  himself  in 
control  of  a  daily  newspaper,  he  would  not 
have  been  Horace  Greeley  if  he  had  not  been 
ready  to  make  a  "most  self-sacrificing  de 
fiance  "  of  public  opinion  in  behalf  of  doc 
trines  which  he 'considered  right. 

What  seemed  to  his  fellow  Whig  leaders, 
in  the  early  years  of  the  Tribune,  vagaries — 
his  advocacy  of  Fourierism,  extreme  temper- 
ence  legislation,  etc. — gave  them  much  an 
noyance,  as  likely  to  hurt  the  political  cause 
with  which  Greeley 's  name  and  paper  were 
associated,  and  they  often  labored  with  him 
on  the  subject.  In  minor  points  they  met 
with  some  success,  but  when  his  mind  was 
once  made  up,  expediency  was  a  futile  argu 
ment  with  which  to  approach  him.  In  a  let 
ter  to  Weed,  dated  February,  1842,  after  de 
scribing  a  sleepless  night  he  had  passed  be-, 
cause  of  some  of  Weed's  criticisms,  he  made 
this  declaration  of  personal  independence: 

"You  have  pleased,  on  several  occasions, 
to  take  me  to  task  for  differing  from  you, 
however  reluctantly  and  temperately,  as 
though  such  conditions  were  an  evidence,  not 
merely  of  weakness  on  my  part,  but  of  some 
78 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

black  ingratitude  or  heartless  treachery.  .  .  . 
I  have  given,  I  have  ever  been  ready  to  give 
you,  any  service  within  my  power;  but  my 
understanding,  my  judgment,  my  conscien 
tiousness  of  convictions,  of  duty  and  public 
good,  these  I  can  surrender  to  no  man.  You 
wrong  yourself  in  asking  them,  and  in  taking 
me  to  task  like  a  schoolboy  for  expressing 
my  sentiments  respectfully  when  they  differ 
from  yours.  ...  Do  not  ask  me  to  forget 
that  I,  too,  am  a  man;  that  I  must  breathe 
free  air  or  be  stifled." 

The  New  Yorker  in  its  last  year  contained 
a  series  of  articles  on  "What  shall  be  done 
for  the  Laborer,"  in  which  it  held  to  the  prin 
ciple  that  the  "basis  of  all  social  and  moral 
reform  "  lay  "in  a  practical  recognition  of 
the  Eight  of  every  human  being  to  demand 
of  the  community  an  opportunity  to  labor 
and  to  receive  a  decent  subsistence  as  the  just 
reward  of  such  labor."  Greeley's  sympa 
thies  were  therefore  ready  to  interest  him 
in  Albert  Brisbane,  a  convert  to  Fourier's 
teaching,  who  had  made  the  acquaintance  of 
the  French  philosopher  in  France,  and  his 
friends,  from  his  conversation,  soon  found 
that  he  had  accepted  Fourier's  views.  Bris 
bane  edited  a  magazine  called  The  Future, 
which  was  printed  in  Greeley's  office,  and 
79 


Horace  Greeley 


whose  prospectus  said:  "The  primary,  posi 
tive,  and  definite  object  of  its  labors  will  be 
to  show  that  Human  Happiness  may  be  pro 
moted,  knowledge  and  virtue  increased,  vice, 
misery,  waste,  and  want  infinitely  diminished, 
by  a  reorganization  of  society  upon  the  prin 
ciple  of  Association,  or  a  combination  of 
effort,  instead  of  the  present  system  of  iso 
lated  households." l  The  Tribune  of  Novem 
ber,  1841, 'contained  an  editorial  which  said: 
"We  have  written  something,  and  shall  yet 
write  much  more,  in  illustration  and  advo 
cacy  of  the  great  Social  revolution  which  our 
age  is  destined  to  commence,  in  rendering  all 
useful  Labor  at  once  instructive  and  honor 
able,  and  banishing  Want  and  all  consequent 
degradation  from  the  globe.  The  germ  of 
this  revolution  is  developed  in  the  writings 
of  Charles  Fourier."  In  the  Tribune  of 
March  1,  1842,  was  begun  a  series  of  articles 
by  Brisbane  on  "Association,"  which  were 
continued  for  many  months.  That  the  Trib 
une  and  its  editor  might  not  be  held  respon- 

1  Henry  J.  Raymond  wrote  to  R.  W.  Griswold  in  1841 : 
"  Greeley  got  himself  into  a  scrape  by  connecting  himself  with 
it  (The  Future),  and  the  city — especially  the  Sunday — papers 
came  down  upon  him  with  a  vengeance.  He's  rather  sorry 
that  he  enlisted,  and  is  trying  to  take  the  curse  off  by  adver 
tising  Brisbane's  name  as  editor." 

80 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

sible  for  the  views  expressed,  each  of  these 
articles  (with  a  few  exceptions)  bore  this 
caption:  "This  column  has  been  purchased  by 
the  advocates  of  Association,  in  order  to  lay 
their  principles  before  the  public.  Its  au 
thorship  is  entirely  distinct  from  that  of  the 
Tribune." 

The  Tribune  had  little  to  say  on  the  sub 
ject  while  it  was  publishing  the  Brisbane  es 
says,  but  on  January  20,  1843,  the  Fourier 
Association  of  the  City  of  New  York  was 
formed,  and  Greeley  was  the  first-named  di 
rector  of  the  North  American  Phalanx,  or 
ganized  soon  after,  with  a  capital  of  $400,000, 
to  put  the  Association  idea  into  practise,  and 
the  Tribune  of  January  27,  in  that  year,  said : 
"We  can  not  but  believe  that  Association, 
with  its  concert  of  action,  its  unity  of  inter 
ests,  its  vast  economies,  and  its  more  effect 
ive  application  of  labor  and  other  means  of 
production  will  be  extremely  profitable,  and 
offer  to  those  who  enter  it  not  only  a  safe  and 
lucrative  investment  of  their  capital  and  a 
most  advantageous  field  for  their  industry 
and  skill,  but  social  and  intellectual  enjoy 
ments,  and  every  means  of  a  superior  educa 
tion  of  their  children."  The  "Brook  Farm  " 
experiment,  which  was  later  placed  on  a 
Fourier  basis,  was  initiated  in  1841,  and  the 
7  81 


Horace  Greeley 

"Sylvania"  enterprise,  in  Pike  County,  Penn 
sylvania,  in  1843. 

The  plant  of  the  North  Amercian  Pha 
lanx  was  established  near  Eed  Bank,  N.  J. 
Only  one-quarter  of  the  capital  was  paid  in, 
but  a  big  dwelling  for  the  members  and  their 
families,  called  the  Phalanstery,  was  erected, 
with  a  steam  apparatus  for  cooking  and 
washing,  and  mills,  storehouses,  and  other 
buildings.  All  the  members  were  divided  into 
groups,  each  of  which  was  assigned  its  out 
door  or  indoor  work.  This  experiment  at 
tracted  a  great  deal  of  attention.  Charles  A. 
Dana  and  his  family  were  for  a  time  resi 
dents  of  the  Phalanstery,  and  Margaret  Ful 
ler,  Frederica  Bremmer,  and  Eev.  W.  H. 
Channing  were  among  its  visitors;  but  the 
Phalanx,  like  "Brook  Farm"  and  "Sylva- 
nia,"  was  not  a  permanent  success.  "Sylva- 
nia  "  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  mortgagee 
in  two  years,  and,  after  a  disastrous  fire, 
"with  some  other  setbacks,"  the  property  of 
the  Phalanx  was  sold,  its  debts  were  paid, 
and  the  stockholders  received  a  dividend 
equal  to  about  65  per  cent  of  their  invest 
ment. 

The  Tribune  and  its  editor  incurred  a 
great  deal  of  criticism,  and  the  paper  lost 
some  readers,  because  of  Greeley's  espousal 
82 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

of  the  socialist  doctrines,,  but  he  refused  to 
disassociate  himself  from  the  experiments 
while  they  were  being  tried,  and  the  attacks 
on  him  helped  to  advertise  him  and  his  paper, 
and  increased  its  circulation  among  those 
who  could  not  regard  as  inherently  wrong  a 
cause  supported,  or  countenanced,  by  men 
like  George  Ripley,  Charles  A.  Dana,  Na 
thaniel  Hawthorne,  and  Parke  Godwin.  In 
February,  1841,  Greeley  wrote  to  Weed  that 
he  took  a  wrong  view  of  the  political  bearing 
of  the  Fourier  matter,  explaining:  "Hitherto 
all  the  devotees  of  social  reform  of  any  kind 
have  been  regularly  repelled  from  the  Whig 
party,  and  attracted  to  its  opposite.  It 
strikes  me  that  it  is  unwise  to  persist  in  this 
course,  unless  we  are  to  be  considered  the 
enemies  of  improvement,  and  the  bulwarks 
of  an  outgrown  aristocracy  in  this  country." 
In  a  letter  to  R.  W.  Griswold,  Greeley  said : 
"I  do  not  regard  either  office  or  money  as  a 
supreme  good;  and,  though  I  never  had 
either,  I  have  been  so  near  to  each  as  to  see 
what  they  are  worth,  very  nearly.  I  regard 
principle  and  self-respect  as  more  important 
than  either."  When  the  Courier  and  En 
quirer,  in  April,  1844,  spoke  of  the  Tribune 
as  "the  organ  of  Charles  Fourier,  Fanny 
Wright,  and  R.  D.  Owen,  advocating  from 
83 


Horace  Greeley 


day  to  day  the  destruction  of  our  existing 
social  system,  and  substituting  in  its  stead 
one  based  upon  infidelity,  and  an  unrestricted 
and  indiscriminate  intercourse  of  the  sexes," 
the  Tribune  began  its  reply,  "We  do  not  copy 
the  above  with  a  view  to  defend  ourselves 
from  the  cowardly  falsehoods  of  the  escaped 
State-prison  bird,"  etc.  As  late  as  February 
10,  1848,  replying  to  some  criticisms  in  the 
Herald  and  the  Observer,  the  Tribune  said: 
"Should  the  Tribune  get  much  further  ahead 
of  the  Herald  in  circulation  and  business,  we 
shall  expect  to  hear  that  Fourier  was  a  Fiji 
cannibal  and  the  original  contriver  of  Asiatic 
cholera." 

In  1846  the  Courier  and  Enquirer  accept 
ed  a  challenge  by  the  Tribune  to  a  discussion 
of  Fourierism,  and  its  articles  were  written 
by  Greeley's  former  assistant,  Henry  J.  Kay- 
mond,  who  had  joined  its  staff  in  1843.  Bay- 
mond  denied  that  the  condition  of  the  labor 
ing  classes  was  as  bad  as  the  Fourierites 
pictured  it,  and  called  the  new  doctrines  hos 
tile  to  Christianity,  to  morality,  and  to  con 
jugal  constancy.  After  the  close  of  this  de 
bate  the  Tribune  practically  dropped  the 
subject.  Greeley's  conviction,  in  the  light  of 
his  later  years,  was  that  the  social  reformers 
were  right  on  many  points,  and  that  Fourier 

84 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

was  the  most  practical  of  them.  He  set  forth 
in  1868,  as  part  of  his  social  creed,  the  fol 
lowing  affirmations: 

"I  believe  that  there  need  be,  and  should 
be,  no  paupers  who  are  not  infantile,  idiotic, 
or  disabled;  and  that  civilized  society  pays 
more  for  the  support  of  able-bodied  pauper 
ism  than  the  necessary  cost  of  its  extirpation. 

"I  believe  that  they  babble  idly  and  libel 
Providence  who  talk  of  surplus  labor,  or  the 
inadequacy  of  capital  to  supply  employment 
to  all  who  need  it. 

"I  believe  that  the  efficiency  of  human 
effort  is  enormously,  ruinously,  diminished  by 
what  I  term  Social  Anarchy.  ...  It  is  quite 
within  the  truth  to  estimate  the  annual  prod 
uct  of  our  national  industry  at  less  than  one- 
half  of  what  it  might  be  if  better  applied  and 
directed. 

"The  poor  work  at  perpetual  disadvan 
tage  in  isolation,  because  of  the  inadequacy 
of  their  means.  .  .  .  Association  would  have 
these  unite  to  purchase,  inhabit,  and  cultivate 
a  common  domain — say,  of  2,000  acres — 
whereby  these  advantages  over  the  isolated 
system  would  be  realized  "  (mentioning  econ 
omy,  etc.). 

But,  while  holding  to  these  beliefs,  he  ac 
knowledged  the  difficulty  of  living  up  to  them. 
85 


Horace  Greeley 

His  own  experience  had  shown  him  that  a 
prime  obstacle  to  a  successful  social  experi 
ment  was  "the  kind  of  persons  who  are  nat 
urally  attracted  to  it,  the  conceited,  the 
crotchety,  the  selfish,  the  headstrong,  the  pug 
nacious,  the  unappreciated,  the  played-out, 
the  idle,  and  the  good-for-nothing  generally; 
who,  finding  themselves  utterly  out  of  place 
and  a  discount  in  the  world  as  it  is,  rashly 
conclude  that  they  are  exactly  fitted  for  the 
world  as  it  ought  to  be."  He  had  found,  too, 
that,  where  such  experiments  had  been  a 
success,  they  rested  either  on  a  communistic 
basis  (and  he  would  not  admit  that  a  member 
contributing  $100,000  to  an  industrial  enter 
prise  should  stand  on  the  same  footing  as  one 
who  brings  nothing,  or  that  a  skilled  me 
chanic  should  receive  no  more  than  a  ditcher) 
or  on  a  "firm  and  deep  religious  basis."  In 
other  words,  the  system  as  he  took  it  up  orig 
inally  was  a  failure,  and  a  scheme  as  he  would 
have  limited  it  would  have  been  rejected  by 
modern  socialists. 

Greeley  was  attracted  by  Sylvester  Gra 
ham's  dietetic  doctrine  that  there  is  better 
food  for  man  than  the  flesh  of  animals ;  that 
all  stimulants,  including  tea  and  coffee, 
should  be  avoided ;  that  bread  should  be  made 
of  unbolted  flour,  and  that  spices  should  not 
86 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

be  used,  and  only  the  least  possible  salt. 
After  hearing  Graham  lecture,  he  became  an 
inmate  of  his  boarding-house,  where  the  table 
conformed  to  the  new  views,  and  it  was  there 
that  he  met  his  future  wife,  Miss  Mary  Y. 
Cheney,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  who  was 
teaching  in  North  Carolina,  and  who  was 
even  more  susceptible  to  new  doctrines  than 
was  her  husband.  Greeley  used  no  alcoholic 
liquors,  did  not  care  for  tea,  and  had  given 
up  coffee  when  he  found  his  hand  trembling 
after  partaking  of  it  at  an  evening  entertain 
ment.  He  preferred  meat,  in  after  years,  to 
"hot  bread,  rancid  butter,  decayed  fruit,  and 
wilted  vegetables,"  but  always  declared  that, 
if  we  of  this  generation  confined  ourselves 
to  a  Graham  diet,  our  grandchildren  would 
live  longer  than  we  shall,  and  require  less 
care  from  doctors.  Mrs.  Greeley  lived  up  to 
her  belief  most  conscientiously  in  their  early 
married  life,  making  no  alteration  in  her 
table,  and  offering  no  excuse,  when  guests 
were  present.  "Usually,"  Greeley  tells  us,  "a 
day,  or  at  most  two,  of  beans  and  potatoes, 
boiled  rice,  puddings,  bread  and  butter,  with 
no  condiments  but  salt,  and  never  a  pickle, 
was  all  they  could  abide;  so,  bidding  her  a 
kind  adieu,  each  in  turn  departed  to  seek 
elsewhere  a  more  congenial  hospitality." 
87 


Horace  Greeley 


Mrs.  Greeley  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Margaret  Fuller  in  Boston,  and  attended  the 
conversations,  for  women  only,  planned  by 
Miss  Fuller,  to  discuss  what  woman  was  born 
to  do,  and  how  she  could  do  it,  and  it  was  at 
Mrs.  Greeley's  invitation  that  Margaret  be 
came  a  member  of  the  Greeley  household 
when  she  went  to  New  York.  Until  the  latter 
part  of  the  year  1844  the  Greeleys  had  lived 
within  less  than  half  a  mile  of  the  Tribune 
office,  one  experiment  in  Broome  Street  con 
vincing  the  editor  that  that  location  was  too 
far  from  his  work.  After  his  exertions  in  the 
great  Clay  campaign  of  1844  the  family  took 
an  old  wooden  house,  surrounded  by  eight 
acres  of  land,  on  the  East  Eiver,  at  Turtle 
Bay,  nearly  opposite  BlackwelPs  Island. 
Margaret  Fuller  described  it  as  "two  miles 
or  more  from  the  thickly  settled  part  of  New 
York,  but  omnibuses  and  cars  give  me  con 
stant  access  to  the  city."  She  did  not  com 
plain  of  her  accommodations  there,  but  Gree 
ley  suggests  that,  in  her  physical  condition, 
a  better  furnished  room  and  a  more  liberal 
table  would  have  added  to  her  happiness. 

Greeley  did  not  grant  a  ready  acceptance 
to  all  of  Miss  Fuller's  views.  She  wrote  a 
great  deal  for  the  Tribune,  however,  on  social 
questions,  book  reviews  (including  a  very  un- 

88 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

complimentary  one  of  Longfellow's  poems), 
and  afterward  letters  from  Europe,  and 
Greeley  has  given  generous  praise  to  her  con 
tributions  and  her  aims.  But  when  she  de 
manded  "the  fullest  recognition  of  social  and 
political  equality  "  for  women,  he  was  willing 
to  concede  the  justness  of  this  demand  only 
on  condition  that  the  enfranchised  woman 
"would  emancipate  herself  from  the  thral 
dom  to  etiquette,  and  the  need  of  a  mascu 
line  arm  in  crossing  the  street."  Until  this 
emancipation  was  secured  he  "could  not  see 
how  the  *  woman's  rights  theory  *  is  ever  to 
be  anything  more  than  a  logically  defen 
sible  abstraction  " ; 1  and  he  declared  his  be 
lief  that  "a  good  husband  and  two  or  three 
bouncing  babies  would  have  emancipated 
[Margaret]  from  a  deal  of  cant  and  non 
sense."  Thus  we  see  that  there  were  "isms  " 
to  which  Greeley  could  not  be  attracted. 

Greeley  was  responsible  for  an  impres 
sion,  which  gained  wide  currency  at  the  time, 
that  the  Tribune  editor  was  a  believer  in  spir- 

1  In  printing  a  full  report  of  the  first  women's  convention, 
held  in  Ohio,  the  Tribune,  on  May  1,  1850,  declared  that  a  sin 
cere  Republican  could  give  no  adequate  reason  for  refusing  the 
suffrage  to  women  if  they  should,  as  a  body,  demand  it,  because 
it  was  "a  natural  right,  however  unwise  or  unnatural  the 
demand."  This  view  was  combated  by  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell 
in  his  Women's  Suffrage. 

89 


Horace  Greeley 


itualism,  especially  as  demonstrated  in  the 
"rappings  "  of  the  Foxes,  which  attracted  so 
much  attention  in  1848.  The  Tribune  did,  in 
December,  1849,  publish  as  a  matter  of  news 
an  account  of  the  "rappings,"  signed  by  re 
sponsible  citizens  of  Rochester,  while  Greeley 
•fras  in  Washington  as  a  member  of  Congress ; 
but  in  a  long  review  of  a  book  on  the  "rap- 
pings  "  the  next  month  it  said:  "We  have 
not  meant  to  imply  that  any  statement  in 
this  book  is  necessarily  false  or  incredible, 
but  only  that  they  are  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  require  a  very  large  amount  of  unimpeach 
able  evidence  to  sustain  them."  Some  two 
years  later,  Greeley  was  present  at  one  of 
the  Fox  seances  in  a  hotel  in  New  York, 
but  he  was  not  impressed  with  their  exhibi 
tion. 

His  wife,  whose  attention  had  been  turned 
to  things  spiritual  by  the  recent  death  of  the 
son  whom  they  so  greatly  mourned,  attended 
several  of  the  seances,  and  was  so  much  inter 
ested  that  she  invited  the  Foxes  to  spend  sev 
eral  weeks  at  her  house,  and  exhibitions  of 
"rappings  "  given  there  were  widely  talked 
of,  and  Greeley's  name  was  naturally  asso 
ciated  with  the  business.  But  this  was  not 
an  "ism  "  that  won  his  unconditional  accept 
ance,  and  he  told  a  correspondent,  through 
90 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

the  Tribune,  that  "ghosts  who  had  anything 
worth  listening  to  would  hardly  stoop  to  so 
uninteresting  a  business  as  hammering."  In 
his  autobiography  he  pronounced  the  so- 
called  spiritual  communications  "vague,  un 
real,  shadowy,  trivial,"  but  added,  of  the 
"communications"  made  by  "mediums": 
"That  some  of  them  are  the  result  of  juggle, 
collusion,  or  trick  I  am  confident;  that  others 
are  not,  I  decidedly  believe." 

A  subject  not  to  be  classed  as  an  "ism," 
in  which  Greeley  always  manifested  the 
greatest  interest,  and  which  won  for  him  the 
regard  of  a  vast  clientage,  was  farming.  "I 
should  have  been  a  farmer,"  he  wrote  in  1868. 
"Were  I  now  to  begin  my  life  over  I  would 
choose  to  earn  my  bread  by  cultivating  the 
soil."  The  lack  of  intelligence  displayed  in 
New  England  agriculture  was  impressed 
upon  him  in  his  boyhood,  and  he  never  wrote 
more  enthusiastically  than  in  teaching  farm 
ers  what  he  thought  they  ought  to  know.  In 
the  forties  his  editions  began  to  publish  re 
ports  of  the  sessions  of  the  Farmers'  Club 
in  connection  with  the  American  Institute, 
and  large  space  was  always  devoted  in  the 
Weekly  Tribune  to  agricultural  subjects. 

In  no  character  was  Greeley  so  satirized  as 
in  that  of  a  farmer,  professing  to  give  instruc- 
91 


Horace  Greeley 


tion  on  a  subject  about  which  lie  had  no  prac 
tical  knowledge,  and  his  agricultural  experi 
ment  at  Chappaqua  received  a  vast  amount 
of  attention  from  pen  and  pencil.  But  such 
sneers  were  far  astray.  Greeley's  ideas  on 
farming  were  not  quixotic;  they  were  good, 
and  they  were  founded  on  the  advice  of  the 
best  authorities  of  the  day.  The  Chappaqua 
estate  was  ridiculed  on  the  assumption  that 
it  did  not  "pay."  Most  of  the  "gentlemen 
farmers  "  of  this  country  would  have  to  con 
fess  to  a  similar  failure  of  their  experiments 
if  judged  by  their  account  books.  Chappa 
qua,  too,  was  not  selected  by  Greeley,  but  by 
his  wife,  or  rather  to  meet  three  conditions 
on  which  she  insisted — viz.,  a  spring  of  pure 
water,  a  cascade  or  brawling  brook,  and  a 
tract  of  evergreen  woods,  and,  to  be  acces 
sible  to  the  busy  editor,  the  site  must  be  near 
the  city.  The  best  he  could  do,  in  satisfying 
these  conditions,  was  to  accept  with  them  "a 
rocky,  wooded  hillside,  sloping  to  the  north 
of  west,  with  a  bog  at  its  foot."  Much  money 
was  spent  on  this  unpromising  tract  that 
might  have  been  saved  where  so  many  ob 
stacles  were  not  to  be  overcome;  but  the 
owner  overcame  many  of  these,  and  by  in 
telligent  methods.  When  he  wrote  his  auto 
biography  he  declared  that  he  had  been 

92 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

"making  "  rather  than  "working  "  a  farm,  but 
he  insisted  that  "good  farming  "  would  pay, 
and  every  intelligent  observer  of  our  day  will 
testify  that  most  farming  failures  are  due 
to  bad  farming. 

In  the  early  seventies  the  Tribune  printed 
a  series  of  articles  on  farming,  by  its  editor, 
and  they  were  afterward  collected  under  the 
title  "What  I  Know  of  Farming."  A  reading 
of  these  essays  will  give  any  competent  judge 
a  good  opinion  of  the  writer's  practical 
knowledge  of  the  subject.  There  is  excellent 
counsel  to  young  farmers  about  the  selection 
and  preparation  of  a  farm;  suggestions 
about  draining  which  have  since  been  accept 
ed  by  thousands  of  agriculturists;  sound 
views  about  waste  in  the  use  of  fertilizers; 
pleas  for  birds  as  farmers'  assistants,  and 
sensible  advice  on  such  subjects  as  deep  plow 
ing,  level  culture  for  potatoes,  and  the  neces 
sity  of  keeping  farm  accounts. 

Merely  to  mention  subjects  under  the  gen 
eral  classification  of  reforms  to  which  the 
Tribune  gave  support  in  its  earlier  years,  we 
may  recall  its  enthusiastic  defense  of  the 
Irish  cause  in  1848,  and  of  the  cause  of  Hun 
gary,  in  whose  behalf  it  proposed  the  raising 
of  a  patriotic  loan,  in  shares  of  $100;  its 
championship  of  cooperation  in  labor;  its 
93 


Horace  Greeley 


gradual  approach  to  the  radical  view  of  tem 
perance  legislation  represented  by  the  Maine 
law,  and  its  opposition  to  capital  punishment, 
to  more  liberal  divorce  laws,  and  to  flogging 
in  the  navy. 

It  is  true  that  its  espousal  of  many  causes 
raised  up  a  host  of  enemies  for  the  Tribune, 
and  no  other  newspaper  in  the  United  States 
was  looked  on  as  so  dangerous  by  those  who 
did  not  agree  with  it.  Nevertheless,  the  cham 
pion  whose  sword  was  naked  for  an  attack  on 
any  worthy  foe  was  an  intellectual  hero  in 
thousands  of  eyes,  and  when  Raymond  start 
ed  the  Times  in  1852  to  supply  a  journal  of 
political  views  similar  to  those  advocated  by 
the  Tribune  without  the  Tribune's  "vaga 
ries,"  the  new  enterprise  succeeded,  but  it 
made  no  serious  inroads  on  the  circulation 
of  the  older  one.1  Greeley  came  to  be  a  sort 
of  general  counsel  for  many  people,  some 
of  whom  could  undoubtedly  be  classified 
among  that  "fringe  of  the  unreasonable  and 
half -cracked,  with  whom,"  Higginson  says, 
"it  is  the  tendency  of  every  reform  to  sur 
round  itself."  Before  the  Tribune  was  a  year 
old  its  editor  told  his  readers,  "We  have  a 
number  of  requests  to  blow  up  all  sorts  of 

1  Greeley  complained  that  the  Times's  circulation  exceeded 
that  of  the  Tribune  in  New  York  city. 

94 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

abuses,"  and  he  added,  with  that  self-confi 
dence  which  always  characterized  him, 
"which  shall  be  attended  to  as  fast  as  possi 
ble."  Greeley  thoroughly  enjoyed  his  reputa 
tion  as  a  philosopher  and  a  seer,  and  a  glance 
through  his  columns  will  show  how  little  he 
was  hindered  by  modesty  in  giving  advice, 
those  receiving  his  ministrations  including 
young  men  seeking  employment,  young  doc 
tors  and  lawyers,  country  merchants,  would- 
be  editors,  and  inquiring  farmers. 

Greeley's  lectures  also  gave  him  and  his 
paper  a  good  deal  of  advertising.  It  is  some 
what  difficult  to  realize  to-day  the  importance 
of  the  lecture  platform  when  "it  was  consid 
ered  a  sort  of  duty  for  educated  men  to  have 
on  hand  a  lecture  or  two  which  they  were 
willing  to  read  to  any  audience  which  was 
willing  to  ask  them."  1  Emerson  wrote  to  a 
friend  in  1843,  "There  is  now  a  'lyceum,'  so 
called,  in  almost  every  town  in  New  England, 
and  if  I  would  accept  an  invitation  I  might 
read  a  lecture  every  night."  But  all  lecturers 
were  not  expected  to  contribute  their  wisdom 
or  entertainment  without  compensation.  It 
was  said  in  the  early  fifties  that  "Ik  Marvel," 
from  the  delivery  of  one  not  very  good  lec- 

1  Bale's  Lowell  and  his  Friends. 

95 


Horace  Greeley 

ture,  could  secure  money  enough  to  support 
himself  while  he  was  writing  a  really  good 
book,  and  that  one  course  of  Bayard  Taylor's 
lectures  brought  him  profit  enough  to  pay  his 
way  ten  times  around  the  world. 

Greeley  always  loved  to  talk,  and  the  lec 
ture-field  was  a  tempting  one  to  him.  In  later 
years  it  used  to  be  said  in  the  office  that  the 
only  way  he  could  be  induced  to  take  a  vaca 
tion  was  to  start  him  off  on  a  lecturing  tour. 
His  first  attempt  on  the  platform  was  made 
in  New  York  in  February,  1842,1  and  he  wrote 
soon  after,  asking  his  friend  Griswold  to  get 
him  an  engagement  in  Philadelphia,  saying, 
"I  know  there  are  hardly  a  hundred  persons 
in  Philadelphia  who  know  of  me,"  but  sug 
gesting  that  he  could  "fill  a  hole  "  in  a  pro 
gram.  Greeley  was  never  an  orator,  but  peo 
ple  have  a  curiosity  to  see  a  public  man  of 
wide  reputation,  and  after  the  Tribune  be 
came  established  he  "drew"  on  this  account, 
although  his  subjects  were  abstract  rather 
than,  in  the  common  acceptance,  entertaining. 
Eleven  such  lectures,  written  between  1842 
and  1848,  each  of  them  in  less  than  a  day, 
were  published  in  1850  under  the  title  Hints 
toward  Eeform,  and  the  subjects  included 

1  Letters  of  R.  W.  Griswold,  p.  104. 

96 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

Human  Life,  The  Emancipation  of  Labor, 
and  The  Formation  of  Character.  In  a  lec 
ture  on  Poets  and  Poetry,  printed  in  his  auto 
biography,  he  commented  freely  on  almost 
the  entire  list  of  English  poets,  pronouncing 
The  Faery  Queen  "a  bore,  unreal,  insupport 
able,"  and  confessing  his  hatred  of  the  Tory 
ism  of  Shakespeare;  and  in  another  lecture, 
on  Literature  as  a  Vocation,  he  styled  the 
great  dramatist  "the  highest  type  of  literary 
hack,"  finding  in  his  writings  a  combination 
of  "starry  flights  and  paltry  jokes,  celestial 
penetration  and  contemptible  puns,"  and  ex 
pressing  his  unqualified  admiration  for  Mrs. 
Hemans,  in  whose  Adopted  Child  he  had 
found  "hours  of  pure  and  tranquil  pleas 
ure." 

Most  of  the  audiences  which  listened  to 
these  discourses  were  lyceums,  or  young  men's 
associations  in  country  villages.  The  great 
place  for  lectures  in  New  York  city  was  the 
Tabernacle,  which  seated  3,000  persons. 
Greeley's  audiences  there  numbered  on  an 
average  1,200  in  the  early  fifties.  In  a  course 
of  lectures  delivered  in  Chicago  in  1853,  when 
its  population  was  about  30,000,  Greeley 
stood  second  as  a  "drawing  card,"  being  only 
preceded  by  Bayard  Taylor  in  a  list  which 
included  John  G.  Saxe,  E.  W.  Emerson,  The- 
8  97 


Horace  Greeley 


odore  Parker,  George  William  Curtis,  Hor 
ace  Mann,  and  E.  P.  Whipple. 

In  1848  Greeley  was  elected  to  Congress, 
for  the  only  time  in  his  career,  accepting  a 
nomination  in  the  upper  district  of  New  York 
city,  to  fill  a  vacancy  caused  by  the  unseating 
of  a  Democrat  on  charges  of  fraud  at  the  polls, 
without  the  seating  of  his  Whig  opponent. 
As  the  term  would  last  only  from  December 
to  March,  and  the  original  candidate  de 
clined  the  nomination  for  the  short  term  when 
the  nomination  for  the  full  term  was  denied 
him,  Greeley  got  the  place.  He  attracted  wide 
attention  during  his  short  residence  in  Wash 
ington,  and  his  paper  received  through  him 
a  vast  amount  of  advertising,  for  a  large  part 
of  which  it  had  to  thank  his  unwise  enemies. 
If  he  was  not  the  only  editor  who  was  a  mem 
ber  of  that  Congress,  he  was  certainly  the 
only  member  who  acted  as  editorial  corre 
spondent  of  so  well  known  a  newspaper  as 
the  Tribune.  His  fellow  members  would 
therefore  naturally  look  on  him  as  doubly 
armed — prepared  to  meet  them  face  to  face, 
and  to  criticize  them  with  his  pen;  and  his 
readers  would  regard  his  letters  as  of  un 
usual  value,  coming  from  one  having  the  op 
portunity  for  an  inside  view  of  things. 

Greeley  went  to  Washington  with  a  con- 
98 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

viction  that  the  national  legislators  were  as 
much  in  duty  bound  to  attend  strictly  to  their 
public  business,  and  so  to  earn  their  pay,  as 
was  a  man  in  private  employment.  Two  days 
after  he  took  his  seat  he  scored  the  ab 
sentees.  In  a  letter  to  the  Tribune,  speaking 
of  the  "annual  hypocrisy  of  electing  a  chap 
lain,"  he  said:  "If  either  House  had  a  chap 
lain  who  dared  preach  to  its  members  what 
they  ought  to  hear — of  their  faithlessness, 
their  neglected  duty,  their  iniquitous  waste  of 
time  by  taking  from  the  treasury  money 
which  they  have  not  even  attempted  to  earn — 
then  there  would  be  some  sense  in  the  chap 
lain  business."  This  he  followed  on  Decem 
ber  22  with  an  exposure  of  the  mileage  abuse 
which  involved  him  in  a  bitter  contest  with 
his  fellow-  members,  and  gained  him  wide  no 
toriety. 

Members  of  Congress  then  received  pay 
at  the  rate  of  eight  dollars  a  day,  and  mile 
age  at  the  rate  of  forty  cents  a  mile,  by 
"the  usual  traveled  route."  When  Greeley 
made  his  first  call  on  the  sergeant-at-arms 
for  his  money,  he  was  shown  a  schedule  giv 
ing  the  amount  of  mileage  drawn  by  each 
member.  Some  of  the  figures  appeared  to 
him  to  be  extravagant,  and  he  at  once  de 
cided  on  a  step,  conscientiously  taken,  but 
99 


Horace  Greeley 


which  gave  the  best  evidence  of  his  news 
paper  tact.  He  hired  a  man  to  make  for  him 
a  table  showing  the  actual  distance  traveled 
by  each  member  in  reaching  the  capital,  the 
distance  for  which  he  was  allowed  mileage, 
and  what  the  saving  would  have  been  had  the 
mileage  been  computed  over  the  shortest 
route.  As  most  members  made  out  their 
schedules  to  cover  as  many  miles  as  possible, 
without  reference  to  the  more  modern  steam 
boat  routes  (and  Greeley' s  amanuensis  had 
taken  the  official  mail  route  distances),  his 
table,  when  the  Tribune  of  December  22,  con 
taining  it,  came  to  Washington,  excited  a 
great  sensation,  every  member  being  charged 
with  receiving  from  $2  to  more  than  $1,000 
in  excess  of  his  equitable  allowance.  "I  had 
expected  that  it  would  kick  up  some  dust," 
says  Greeley  in  his  autobiography,  "but  my 
expectations  were  outrun."  "I  have  divided 
the  House  into  two  parties,"  he  wrote  to  his 
friend  Griswold  at  the  time;  "one  that  would 
like  to  see  me  extinguished,  and  the  other 
that  wouldn't  be  satisfied  without  a  hand  in 
doing  it." 

For  some  days  members  simply  discussed 
the  matter  with  one  another  or  with  their 
critic.     Him  they  could  not  bend.     On  De 
cember  27  the  subject  was  brought  to  the 
100 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

attention  of  the  House  by  an  Ohio  member 
named  Sawyer,  who  had  been  previously  held 
up  to  ridicule  by  a  Tribune  correspondent 
for  eating  his  luncheon  during  the  session  be 
hind  the  Speaker's  chair,  and  who,  in  the 
table,  was  credited  with  receiving  $281  more 
than  was  his  honest  due.  Mr.  Turner,  of  Illi 
nois,  whose  excess  of  mileage  was  nearly 
$200,  moved  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
to  inquire  whether  the  Tribune's  charges  did 
not  amount  to  an  allegation  of  fraud  against 
the  members,  and  to  report  whether  they 
were  false  or  true.  Turner  charged  the  ed 
itor-member — whom  he  alluded  to  as  "per 
haps  the  gentleman,  or  rather  the  individual, 
perhaps  the  thing  " — with  seeking  notoriety, 
and  being  engaged  in  a  very  small  business. 
Greeley  took  part  in  the  ensuing  debate,  hold 
ing  tenaciously  to  the  main  point  of  his  dis 
closure. 

The  discussion  continued  until  January 
16,  when  the  committee  made  a  report  exon 
erating  the  members,  and  there  the  mat 
ter  practically  dropped.  Greeley  was  ac 
cused,  during  the  discussion,  of  employing  in 
his  newspaper  correspondence  time  that  he 
should  have  devoted  to  the  public  business  in 
the  House,  and  a  fierce  and  somewhat  embar 
rassing  attack  was  made  on  him  concerning 
101 


Horace  Greeley 

a  vote  which  he  gave  on  an  appropriation 
for  the  purchase  of  certain  books — archives, 
debates,  etc. — with  which  it  was  customary 
to  supply  members.  He  certainly  got  very 
much  confused  in  his  explanations.  "For  a 
time,"  he  says  in  his  autobiography,  "it 
looked  as  though  the  mileage  men  had  the 
upper  hand  of  me,  and  I  was  told  that  a  paper 
was  drawn  up  for  signatures  to  see  how  many 
would  agree  to  stand  by  each  other  in  voting 
my  expulsion,  but  that  the  movement  was 
crushed  by  a  terse  interrogatory  remon 
strance  by  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  then  a 
leading  Democrat.  *  Why,  you  blessed  fools,' 
warmly  inquired  '  long  John,'  '  do  you  want 
to  make  him  President?  '  "  Wentworth's  re 
mark  showed  how  strongly  public  feeling  had 
shaped  itself  on  Greeley's  side  of  the  main 
question.  In  one  of  the  debates  in  the  House 
a  speaker  declared  that  he  had  not  seen  a 
single  newspaper  that  did  not  approve  of 
Greeley's  course.  How  restive  the  public  are 
regarding  attempts  of  members  of  Congress 
to  increase  unduly  their  own  emoluments  may 
be  learned  by  recalling  the  excitement  caused 
by  the  act  of  1816  increasing  the  pay  of  mem 
bers  (including  those  then  in  office)  from  $6 
a  day  to  $1,500  a  year  (Clay's  vote  for  this 
bill  nearly  causing  his  defeat  for  reelection), 
102 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

and  the  outburst  of  denunciation  of  the  Con 
gress  which,  in  1873,  passed  the  so-called 
"salary  grab  "  bill. 

But  the  mileage  abuse  was  not  the  only 
one  to  which  Greeley  drew  attention.  The 
waste  of  time  was  a  constant  subject  of  com 
ment  in  his  editorial  correspondence,  and  on 
January  22  he  moved  an  amendment  to  the 
general  appropriation  bill  providing  that 
members  should  not  be  paid  when  absent 
from  their  seats  except  in  case  of  sickness 
or  when  employed  elsewhere  in  public  busi 
ness,  and  he  made  a  vain  attempt  to  save  the 
bonus  of  $250  which  it  had  been  customary 
to  vote  to  the  House  employees.  The  value 
of  the  attention  which  the  seven-years'-old 
Tribune  attracted  all  over  the  country  be 
cause  of  its  editor's  course  in  Congress  could 
not  well  be  overestimated,  and  an  indication 
of  the  practical  result  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
its  advertising  receipts  were  larger  by  $7,830 
in  1849  than  in  the  year  previous.  The  econ 
omist  was  received  with  great  cordiality  oil 
the  occasion  of  a  trip  to  the  West  that  he 
made  in  1849,  the  marked  warmth  of  his  re 
ception  in  Cincinnati  calling  out  from  him  a 
special  letter  of  thanks. 

Greeley's  personality  was  always  im 
pressed  on  the  Tribune.  His  favorite  text 
103 


Horace  Greeley 


was  some  article  in  another  newspaper,  and 
a  count  of  his  editorials  would  probably  show 
that  a  majority  of  them  began  with  a  quota 
tion  from,  or  a  reference  to,  some  other  ed 
itor's  views.  His  reply  was  very  often  em 
phasized  by  the  line,  "Comments  by  the  Trib 
une,"  or  the  like,  and  if  he  desired  to  be  par 
ticularly  emphatic  he  would  sign  his  initials, 
"H.  G."  His  correspondence,  when  he  was 
out  of  the  city  in  the  earlier  years,  often  oc 
cupied  the  editorial  columns,  and  he  was  for 
tunate  in  getting  before  the  public  in  his 
travels.  Thus,  when  he  first  visited  England, 
in  1851,  he  was  chairman  of  one  of  the  juries 
of  award  in  the  World's  Exhibition  in  Lon 
don,  delivered  the  address  proposing  the 
health  of  the  architect  of  the  Crystal  Palace 
at  a  notable  banquet,  and  gave  his  experience 
as  an  editor  to  a  Parliamentary  Commission. 
When  he  visited  Paris  in  1855  he  was  ar 
rested  at  the  instance  of  a  French  exhib 
itor  at  the  Crystal  Palace  exhibition  in  New 
York,  who  tried  to  hold  him  responsible  for 
a  statue  that  was  broken  there  because  he 
was  a  director  in  the  enterprise,  and  he 
was  imprisoned  for  two  days  in  the  Clichy 
prison.  His  trip  across  the  plains,  in  1859, 
was  made  a  notable  event,  and  the  driver 
of  the  stage  in  which  he  crossed  the  Sier- 
104 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

ras  was  a  sort  of  hero  for  the  rest  of  his 
life. 

Greeley  "edited  "  the  whole  Tribune  up  to 
the  day  of  his  nomination  for  President. 
None  of  its  columns  escaped  his  supervision. 
He  was  not  an  easy  man  to  please,  as  he  con 
sidered  all  mistakes  likely  to  be  placed  on  his 
own  shoulders.  The  style  of  his  own  editorial 
articles  was  clear,  forceful,  and  concise,  with 
out  rhetorical  adornment,  and  he  expected  his 
assistants  to  follow  his  model.  Writing  to 
one  of  these  who  had  gotten  out  a  number  of 
the  New  Yorker  in  1840,  while  he  was  in  Al 
bany,  Greeley  said:  "The  last  New  Yorker 
was  a  very  fair  number,  bating  typograph 
ical  errors,  such  as  '  Dugal '  for  *  Dugald ' 
Stuart,  which  is  awful,  as  insinuating  igno 
rance  against  us.  I  saw  '  From  whence  '  in 
your  verse,  too.  Don't  you  think  that  is 
shocking — positively  shocking?  "  His  letters 
to  Charles  A.  Dana,  written  while  he  was 
watching  the  Banks  speakership  contest  in 
1855-'56,1  give  many  pictures  of  him  in  the 
role  of  the  editorial  supervisor.  One  of  these 
letters  began  thus : 

"What  would  it  cost  to  burn  the  Opera 
House!  If  the  price  is  reasonable,  have  it 


1  New  York  Sun,  May  19, 
105 


ag^  Greeley 

•  • 

done  and  send  me  the.fyill.  .  .  .  All  Congress 
is  disappointed  and^*grieved  at  not  seeing 
Pierce  and  Gushing  demolished  in  the  Trib 
une.  .  .  .  And  now  I  sea^that  you  have  crowd 
ed  out  the  little  I  did  send-to  make  room  for 
Fry's  eleven  columns  of  arguments  as  to  the 
feasibility  of  sustaining..,  the  opera  in  New 
York  if  they  would  only  play  his  composi 
tions.  I  don't  believe  three  hundred  who 
take  the  Tribune  care  one  chew  of  tobacco 
for  the  matter !  " 

Again  he  wrote : 

"I  shall  have  to  quit  here  or  die,  unless  you 
stop  attacking  people  here  without  consulting 
me; "  and  again:  "If  you  were  to  live  fifty 
years  and  do  nothing  but  good  all  the  time, 
you  could  hardly  atone  for  the  mischief  you 
have  done  by  that  article  on  Benton.  ...  I 
write  once  more  to  entreat  that  I  may  be  al 
lowed  to  conduct  the  Tribune  with  reference 
to  the  mile  wide  that  stretches  either  way 
from  Pennsylvania  Avenue.  It  is  but  a  small 
space,  and  you  have  all  the  world  besides." 
Indicating  his  zeal  for  exactness,  and  his 
quick  detection  of  an  error,  he  wrote:  "The 
Tribune  of  Monday  says  that  the  bank  sus 
pension  took  place  in  1836.  It  was  '37  (May 
10).  Please  correct  in  Weekly." 

Greeley  was  always  easily  approached, 
106 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

and  the  demands  on  his  purse  and  influence 
were  constant.  He  devoted  a  chapter  of  his 
autobiography  to  Beggars  and  Borrowers, 
but  it  gave  no  adequate  idea  of  the  money 
that  such  applicants  obtained  from  him.  He 
portrays  many  kinds  of  beggars — the  "chron 
ic,"  the  "systematic," — and  in  summing  up 
his  experience  says,  "I  can  not  remember  a 
single  instance  in  which  the  promise  to  repay 
was  made  good."  But  he  went  on  lending. 
To  a  clerk  from  New  Hampshire,  who,  arriv 
ing  in  New  York  with  his  wife  penniless, 
asked  for  a  "loan"  to  take  him  back  to  his 
father's  house,  Greeley  replied,  "Stranger,  I 
must  help  you  get  away.  But  why  say  any 
thing  about  paying  me?  You  know,  and  I 
know,  you  will  never  pay  a  cent."  This  makes 
us  recall  that  "when  the  Spectator  went  out 
to  meet  Sir  Eoger  de  Coverley  he  could  hear 
him  chiding  a  beggar  asking  alms  for  not 
finding  some  work,  but  at  the  same  time  hand 
ing  him  sixpence." 

Some  applicants,  however,  did  meet  with 
a  refusal.  Chauncey  M.  Depew  has  told  of 
finding  a  visitor  in  Greeley's  editorial  room 
when  he  made  a  call  on  him.  The  editor's 
patience  had  evidently  been  almost  exhaust 
ed,  and  as  he  wrote  on  steadily  he  would  give 
an  occasional  kick  toward  the  caller,  who 
107 


Horace  Greeley 

every  now  and  then  put  in  a  word.  Finally, 
turning  round,  Greeley  said:  "Tell  me  what 
you  want.  Tell  me  quick,  and  in  one  sen 
tence."  The  man  said,  "I  want  a  subscrip 
tion,  Mr.  Greeley,  for  a  cause  which  will  pre 
vent  a  thousand  of  our  fellow-beings  from  go 
ing  to  hell."  Greeley  shouted,  "I  will  not  give 
you  a  cent.  There  don't  half  enough  go  there 
now."  As  Greeley  was  a  Universalist,  this 
reply  was  not  so  severe  as  it  sounded. 

The  first  time  I  saw  Greeley  was  in  the 
little  room,  just  off  the  publication  office, 
where  he  did  his  work  in  his  later  years. 
Having  occasion  to  ask  him  about  the  pub 
lication  of  some  article  in  the  weekly  edition, 
which  was  then  in  my  charge,  I  found  him 
busily  writing,  with  a  man,  hat  in  hand, 
standing  near  him,  evidently  making  some 
appeal.  The  desk  was  piled  high  with  pa 
pers,  and  there  was  a  litter  of  the  same 
around  him  on  the  floor.  Over  his  desk  dan 
gled  the  handle  of  a  bell-cord,  with  which  he 
could  summon  his  messenger-boy,  and  by  an 
other  cord  were  suspended  his  scissors,  which 
would  have  been  lost  as  soon  as  he  laid  them 
down.  To  his  visitor  he  apparently  paid  no 
attention,  although  the  man  would  occasion 
ally  interject  a  few  words,  fumbling  his  hat 
nervously.  At  last,  having  reached  the  bot- 
108 


Sources  of  the  Tribune's  Influence 

torn  of  a  page,  Greeley  swung  around  in  his 
chair,  and,  in  his  querulous  voice,  said,  "I'll 
be  d — d  if  I  am  going  to  spend  my  time  get 
ting  New  York  offices  for  Jerseymen."  Then 
the  man  went  out. 


109 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   TAKIFF   QUESTION 

GBEELEY'S  sympathies  were  always  in 
favor  of  a  protective  tariff.  He  heard  the 
hard  times  of  his  boyhood  in  New  England 
attributed  to  the  "cheapness "  of  English 
products;  both  the  political  parties  in  the 
presidential  campaign  of  1828,  when  he  was 
an  apprentice  in  the  East  Poultney  office,  pro 
fessed  devotion  to  protection,  and  speeches 
which  he  heard  at  a  consultation  of  protec 
tionists  in  the  American  Institute,  which  he 
attended  while  waiting  for  a  job  during  his 
first  year  in  New  York  city,  strengthened  his 
already  formed  convictions.  But  during  the 
earlier  years  of  his  editorial  work  in  New 
York  and  Albany  the  tariff  was  not  a  prom 
inent  issue.  The  compromise  act  passed  in 
1833  continued  in  force  until  1842,  and,  al 
though  it  was  not  operating  as  Clay  and  other 
of  his  supporters  anticipated  (Clay  looked 
for  its  speedy  amendment),  it  was  not  made 
a  "live  issue."  We  find  the  existing  tariff 
110 


The  Tariff  Question 

law  named  in  the  New  Yorker  as  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  hard  times  of  1836-'37,  the  pos 
sibilities  of  silk  culture  in  New  York  State 
set  forth,  and  the  objections  of  the  Evening 
Post  to  a  proposed  State  bounty  of  fifty  cents 
a  pound  on  silk  produced  in  the  State  warmly 
combated. 

The  compromise  act  provided  for  a  reduc 
tion  of  all  duties  which  exceeded  20  per  cent 
under  the  act  of  1832,  on  the  following  scale : 
10  per  cent  of  the  excess  to  be  removed  on 
January  1,  1834;  10  per  cent  more  on  Jan 
uary  1,  1836 ;  another  10  per  cent  on  January 
1,  1838,  and  a  fourth  on  January  1,  1840 ;  on 
January  1,  1842,  one-half  of  the  remaining 
excess  was  to  be  abolished,  and  the  remainder 
of  the  excess  on  July  1,  1842,  leaving,  after 
that  date,  a  uniform  tax  of  20  per  cent.  One 
of  the  arguments  used  by  Clay  to  secure  sup 
port  for  his  compromise  from  his  fellow  pro 
tectionists  was  that  it  would  be  superseded 
before  its  ultra  reductions  took  effect.  But 
during  the  second  administration  of  Jackson 
and  the  administration  of  Van  Buren — the 
latter  had  no  very  clear  views  about  the  tariff 
— other  financial  questions  occupied  the  at 
tention  of  the  country,  and  even  during  the 
hard  times  of  1837  the  tariff  was  only  inci 
dentally  alluded  to  in  the  discussion  of  reme- 
111 


Horace  Greeley 


dies ;  and  until  after  the  election  of  1840  no 
aggressive  steps  were  taken  to  change  the 
law.  But  the  approach  of  the  date  when  the 
horizontal  rate  of  20  per  cent  would  go  into 
effect  was  causing  uneasiness.  The  duty  on 
rolled  bar  iron,  for  instance,  which  was  95  per 
cent  (specific)  in  1832,  had  dropped  to  42.5 
on  January  1,  1842,  and  would  drop  to  20 
per  cent  in  the  coming  July.  Moreover,  the 
extra  session  of  Congress  which  assembled 
in  June,  1841,  had  to  face  a  deficit  of  the 
revenues. 

As  the  Whigs  were  in  control  of  both 
Houses  they  could  make  any  change  in  the 
tariff  on  which  they  might  agree,  and  to 
which  the  President  would  consent.  Clay, 
their  leader,  quickly  presented  his  program 
in  the  shape  of  a  resolution  setting  forth  the 
leading  matters  which  should  be  acted  upon, 
including,  in  order,  the  repeal  of  the  Sub- 
treasury  law,  the  incorporation  of  a  United 
States  Bank,  and  the  raising  of  the  necessary 
revenue  both  by  an  increase  of  duties  and 
a  loan.  The  extra  session  passed  no  tariff 
bill,  but  it  did  authorize  a  loan  of  $12,000,000, 
which,  on  account  of  the  condition  of  the  pub 
lic  credit,  the  Treasury  found  it  difficult  to 
secure.  In  his  message  at  the  opening  of  the 
regular  session  in  the  following  December, 
112 


The  Tariff  Question 

President  Tyler  recommended  tariff  revision, 
with  a  view  to  the  substitution  of  discrimina 
ting  for  level  rates,  but  without  violating  the 
spirit  of  the  compromise  of  1833.  The  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  in  his  report,  suggested 
that  the  condition  of  the  finances  would  no 
longer  permit  a  strict  observance  of  that  act. 
In  the  following  March — just  previous  to  his 
farewell  to  the  Senate — Clay  introduced  reso 
lutions  favoring  an  increase  to  30  per  cent 
of  the  duties  that  would  be  reduced  to  20  per 
cent  in  the  following  June,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  repeal  of  the  law  under  which  there 
was  to  be  no  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of 
land  sales  among  the  States  so  long  as  the 
tariff  rate  exceeded  20  per  cent. 

The  death  of  Harrison  elevated  to  the 
presidency  a  man  whom  Greeley  in  later 
years  characterized  as  "an  imbittered,  im 
placable  enemy  of  the  party  which  had  raised 
him  from  obscurity  and  neglect  to  the  pin 
nacle  of  power."  The  Tribune  gave  Tyler 
faithful  support  in  the  early  part  of  his  ad 
ministration,  even  taking  the  view  of  only  a 
minority  of  the  Whigs  in  defending  Web 
ster's  course  in  remaining  in  the  Cabinet 
after  his  associates,  at  Clay's  instigation,  had 
resigned  because  of  the  President's  veto  of 
the  United  States  Bank  bill.  But  a  visit  to 
9  113 


Horace  Greeley 


Washington  in  December,  1841,  convinced 
Greeley  that  Tyler  was  "treacherously  co- 
queting  with  Loco-f ocoism  "  with  a  view  to 
his  own  renomination.  Greeley  made  a  trip 
in  1842  through  parts  of  New  England,  New 
York  State,  and  Pennsylvania,  including 
Washington  in  his  itinerary,  and  on  his  re 
turn  he  foreshadowed  his  view  of  the  issue 
to  be  made  prominent  in  the  next  presidential 
campaign  in  a  note  from  "the  senior  editor," 
in  which  he  said :  "  The  cause  of  protection  to 
home  industry  is  much  stronger  throughout 
this  and  the  adjoining  States  than  even  the 
great  party  which  mainly  upholds  it;  and 
nothing  will  so  much  tend  to  insure  the  elec 
tion  of  Henry  Clay  next  President  as  the  veto 
of  an  efficient  tariff  bill  by  John  Tyler.  .  .  . 
If  a  distinct  and  unequivocal  issue  can  be 
made  upon  the  great  leading  questions  at  issue 
between  the  rival  parties — on  protection  to 
home  industry  and  internal  improvements — 
the  Whig  ascendency  will  be  triumphantly 
vindicated  in  the  coming  election."  That  year 
witnessed  the  struggle  over  the  tariff  be 
tween  President  Tyler  and  the  Whig  Con 
gress,  the  President  vetoing  two  bills  *  be- 

1  Of  Tyler's  veto,  the  Tribune  said  :  "  If  the  spirit  of  na 
tional  pride — the  feeling  of  free  sovereignty  among  the  people 
— had  not  been  stifled  and  destroyed  by  gradual  and  almost 

114 


The  Tariff  Question 

cause  of  provisions  for  the  distribution 
among  the  States  of  the  proceeds  of  land 
sales,  and  finally  signing  one  which  was  de 
cidedly  protective,  but  which  Calhoun  de 
clared  was  passed  more  to  make  a  political 
issue  than  to  please  the  manufacturers. 
This  opinion  was  certainly  in  line  with  Gree- 
ley's  recommendation. 

From  that  time  to  the  date  of  his  nomina 
tion  for  President,  Greeley,  with  the  Tribune 
at  his  back,  was  the  foremost  advocate  of  a 
protective  tariff  in  this  country,  addressing 
a  larger  constituency  than  any  of  the  tariff 
advocates  in  Congress.  He  was  early  recog 
nized  as  an  authority  on  the  subject,  Weed 
placing  only  Hezekiah  Niles  above  him.  He 
was  the  author  of  an  article  in  the  Merchants' 
Magazine  of  May,  1841,  which  replied  to  a 
free-trader's  argument,  and  he  and  McElrath 
began,  in  1842,  the  publication  of  a  magazine 
called  The  American  Laborer,  whose  purpose 
was  the  inculcation  of  the  protective  doctrine. 
In  November,  1843,  he  and  Joseph  Blunt  de 
fended  the  affirmative  side  in  a  debate  in  the 
Tabernacle  in  New  York  city  on  the  ques- 

imperceptible  encroachments  upon  their  rights  during  the  last 
twelve  years,  a  voice  would  go  forth  from  the  heart  of  the 
nation  which  would  drive  to  his  duty  the  weak  man  whose 
selfish  ambition  now  turns  him  from  it." 

115 


Horace  Greeley 


tion,  "Besolved,  That  a  protective  tariff  is 
conducive  to  our  national  prosperity,"  Sam 
uel  J.  Tilden  and  Parke  Godwin  taking  the 
negative.  As  he  printed  his  argument  on 
this  occasion  in  his  autobiography  in  1868, 
it  may  be  accepted  as  defining  the  ground 
work  of  his  belief. 

He  laid  down  and  explained  five  posi 
tions  : 

1.  "A  nation  which  would  be  prosperous 
must  prosecute  various  branches  of  industry, 
and  supply  its  vital  wants  mainly  by  the  la 
bor  of  its  own  hands."    History  proved  that 
an  agricultural  and  grain-exporting  nation 
had  always  been  a  poor  nation. 

2.  "  There  is  a  natural  tendency  in  a  com 
paratively  new  country  to  become  and  con 
tinue  an  exporter  of  grain  and  other  rude  sta 
ples,    and    an   importer    of   manufactures." 
This  was  true  because,  in  a  new  country,  the 
available  labor  is   in  demand  for  clearing 
fields,  opening  roads,  etc.,  while  older  coun 
tries  have  not  only  an  adequate  labor  supply, 
but  capital  and  machinery. 

3.  "It  is  injurious  to  the  new  country  thus 
to  continue  dependent  for  its  supplies  of  cloth 
ing  and  manufactured  fabrics  on  the  old." 
The  ruling  price  of  grain  in  a  district  which 
exports  it  will  be  the  price  at  the  point  to 

116 


The  Tariff  Question 

which  it  is  exported,  less  the  freight — that  is, 
the  price  it  brings  there  as  obtained  from  the 
countries  nearest  at  hand,  and  which  can  pro 
duce  it  most  cheaply.  The  British  manufac 
turer  would  only  be  obliged  to  mark  the 
price  of  his  cloths  5  per  cent  below  the  whole 
sale  price  of  the  same  grade  in  Illinois  in  or 
der  to  control  the  cloth  market  in  this  coun 
try.  The  free-trader  who  sees  in  this  only 
more  cloth  for  the  money  for  the  American 
purchaser,  overlooks  the  point  that  the  Amer 
ican  grain-producing  purchaser  must,  under 
free  trade,  look  abroad  for  a  market  for  his 
surplus  grain  at  the  lowest  world's  price — 
"in  other  words,  while  Illinois  is  making  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars  by  buying  her 
cloth  where  she  can  buy  cheapest,  she  is 
losing  nearly  two  million  dollars  on  the  net 
product  of  her  grain." 

4.  "The  equilibrium  between  agriculture, 
manufactures,  and  commerce,  which  we  need, 
can  only  be  maintained  by  means  of  pro 
tective  duties."    It  would  not  be  wise  to  buy 
boots  and  hose  and  knives  and  forks  in  Eu 
rope  at  a  cost  below  the  home  price  when  the 
facility  of  paying  for  them  manufactured  at 
home  would  be  greater. 

5.  "Protection  is  necessary  and  proper  to 
sustain  as  well  as  to  create  a  beneficent  ad- 

117 


Horace  Greeley 


justment  of  our  national  industry."  Under 
this  heading  he  explained  that  "if  manufac 
tures  were  protected  as  a  matter  of  special 
bounty  or  favor  to  the  manufacturers,  a  sin 
gle  day  were  too  long  "  to  continue  the  pro 
tection;  protection  should  be  afforded  "for 
the  sake  of  all  protective  labor."  Why  not  do 
without  protection  when,  under  the  tariff,  you 
can  manufacture  cheaper  than  you  can  buy 
abroad?  Because,  under  free  trade,  Europe 
can  at  any  time  dump  on  us  its  surplus  prod 
uct,  and  so  ruin  our  own  markets.  He  did 
not  admit  the  existence  of  any  foreign  mar 
kets  for  American  goods,  and  said,  "If  the 
American  manufacturers  can  not  make  sales, 
the  sheriff  will  and  must.  .  .  .  Were  it  cer 
tain  that  the  price  of  home  products  would 
be  permanently  higher  than  that  of  the  for 
eign,  I  should  still  insist  on  efficient  protec 
tion.  ...  I  look  not  so  much  to  the  nominal 
price  as  to  the  facility  of  payment.  And, 
where  cheapness  is  only  to  be  attained  by  a 
depression  of  the  wages  of  labor  to  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  European  standard,  I  prefer 
that  it  should  be  dispensed  with."  * 

1  A  series  of  24  essays  by  Greeley,  "  designed  to  elucidate 
the  science  of  political  economy,  while  serving  to  explain  and 
defend  the  policy  of  protection  to  home  industry  as  a  system 
of  national  cooperation  for  the  elevation  of  labor,"  which  had 

118 


The  Tariff  Question 

Henry  Clay  received  the  Whig  nomina 
tion  for  President  in  1844  without  opposition, 
and  Greeley  threw  himself  into  the  campaign 
with  all  the  devotion  of  one  who  loved  the 
candidate  "for  his  generous  nature,  his  gal 
lant  bearing,  his  thrilling  eloquence,  and  his 
lifelong  devotion  to  what  I  [Greeley]  deemed 
our  country's  unity,  prosperity,  and  just  re 
nown."  The  Tribune  early  in  the  year  had 
increased  its  size  one-third  and  treated  itself 
to  a  new  "dress  "  (of  type).  As  soon  as  the 
Clay  ticket  was  in  the  field  it  issued  a  cam 
paign  weekly,  called  The  Clay  Tribune,  fif 
teen  subscriptions  to  which  (for  the  cam 
paign)  cost  only  five  dollars.  Greeley  never, 
probably,  worked  as  he  did  in  that  year.  His 
wife  was  in  Massachusetts,  and  he  spent  most 
of  his  time  in  the  office,  scarcely  giving  him 
self  opportunity  to  sleep.  His  contributions 
to  the  Tribune  averaged  three  columns  a  day ; 
he  made  as  many  as  six  speeches  in  some 
weeks,  and  he  conducted  (without  the  aid  of 
a  secretary)  a  large  correspondence.  "Very 


appeared  in  the  Tribune,  were  published  in  book  form  in  1870. 
In  these  essays  he  not  only  elaborated  his  view  that  protective 
duties  do  not  necessarily  increase  prices  to  consumers,  and  met 
many  arguments  advanced  by  revenue  reformers,  but  he  dis 
cussed  paper  money,  usury,  the  balance  of  trade,  slave  and 
hired  labor,  cooperation,  and  kindred  subjects. 

119 


Horace  Greeley 


often,"  he  says  in  his  Busy  Life,  "I  crept  to 
my  lodging  near  the  office  at  2  to  3  A.  M.  with 
my  head  so  heated  by  fourteen  to  sixteen 
hours  of  incessant  reading  and  writing  that 
I  could  only  win  sleep  by  means  of  copious 
affusions  from  a  shower-bath;  and  these, 
while  they  probably  saved  me  from  a  dan 
gerous  fever,  brought  out  such  myriads  of 
boils,  that — though  I  did  not  heed  them  till 
after  the  battle  was  fought  out  and  lost — I 
was  covered  by  them  for  the  six  months  en 
suing,  often  fifty  or  sixty  at  once,  so  that  I 
could  contrive  no  position  in  which  to  rest, 
but  passed  night  after  night  in  an  easy 
chair."  It  was  in  this  campaign  that  Greeley 
won  his  position  as  the  leading  Whig  ex 
pounder  and  defender  of  the  doctrine  of  pro 
tection. 

Greeley  accepted  the  election  of  Polk  as  a 
personal  defeat  of  himself.  "I  was  the  worst 
beaten  man  on  the  continent,"  was  his  own 
later  expression.  But  he  also  believed  that 
Clay  might  have  been  elected  had  all  the  Ken- 
tuckian's  supporters  worked  as  hard  as  he 
did.  The  circulation  of  100,000  copies  of  his 
Daily  Tribune  and  of  25,000  of  his  Clay  Trib 
une  would,  he  always  thought,  have  secured 
Clay's  election. 

Greeley  did  not  ignore,  in  the  next  few 
120 


The  Tariff  Question 

years,  the  growing  importance  of  the  slavery 
question,  as  it  was  shaping  itself  in  connec 
tion  with  Texas  annexation;  but  he  did  not 
abandon  the  tariff  as  his  favorite  leading  is 
sue  for  the  campaign  of  1848.  Folk's  letter 
to  John  K.  Kane,  in  1844,  in  which  he  had 
declared  it  "the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
extend  fair  and  just  protection  to  all  the 
great  interests  of  the  whole  Union,"  had,  to 
gether  with  the  placing  of  Dallas  on  the  ticket 
with  him,  taken  a  good  deal  of  the  protection 
wind  out  of  the  Whig  sails,  so  that  Greeley 
did  not  consider  the  result  a  fair  test  of  the 
popular  opinion  on  the  tariff.  He  was  en 
couraged,  too,  by  the  speedy  passage  of  a  new 
tariff  bill  by  the  Democratic  Congress  elected 
with  Polk.  The  new  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury,  Robert  J.  Walker,  of  Mississippi,  in  his 
first  report,  strongly  favored  a  lighter  tariff, 
making  what  was  considered  an  attack  on  the 
protection  policy;  and  a  bill  which  bore  his 
name  was  passed  (by  the  casting  vote  of 
Vice-President  Dallas  in  the  Senate,  and 
against  the  vote  of  every  Representative  but 
one  from  Pennsylvania)  which  divided  duti 
able  articles  into  classes,  those  in  Schedule 
C,  for  instance,  which  included  most  prod 
ucts  over  which  there  was  a  special  contro 
versy,  to  pay  a  duty  of  30  per  cent  on  their 
121 


Horace  Greeley 

value;  the  tariff  of  1842  provided  that  iron, 
in  this  schedule,  should  pay  so  many  dollars 
per  ton.  In  1846,  Pennsylvania,  in  an  "off 
year,"  chose  sixteen  Whigs  out  of  her  nine 
teen  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  the 
"Whigs  made  encouraging  gains  in  other  im 
portant  States.  Greeley  strongly  favored 
the  nomination  of  Clay  again  in  1848,  and 
another  tariff  campaign,  but  the  convention 
named  General  Taylor. 


122 


CHAPTER  VII 
GKEELEY'S  PAET  IN  THE  ANTISLAVEKY  CONTEST 

IN  the  tributes  paid  to  Greeley's  memory 
at  the  time  of  his  death  by  fellow  journalists 
in  New  York  city,  two,  from  the  pens  of  men 
who  had  bitterly  opposed  him  in  many  things, 
stand  out  prominent.  "The  colored  race," 
said  the  World,  "when  it  becomes  sufficiently 
educated  to  appreciate  his  career,  must  al 
ways  recognize  him  as  the  chief  author  of 
their  emancipation  from  slavery,  and  their 
equal  citizenship ; "  and  the  Evening  Post 
conceded  that,  in  the  history  of  the  American 
antislavery  contest,  "one  of  the  most  promi 
nent  places  must  be  given  to  the  sturdy,  un 
flinching,  and  persistent  assaults  of  the  Trib 
une  newspaper."  His  own  estimate  of  the 
part  he  took  in  this  contest  was  indicated  in 
a  speech  at  his  reception  in  the  Lincoln  Club 
rooms  in  New  York  city,  in  June,  1871,  when, 
referring  to  the  Democratic  "new  departure  " 
and  the  possibility  of  the  Republicans  going 
out  of  power,  he  said:  "If  it  were  my  fate  to 
123 


Horace  Greeley 


go  out  at  this  moment,  and  every  year  of  my 
life  thereafter  to  be  in  the  minority,  prostrate 
and  powerless,  I  should  still  thank  God  most 
humbly  and  heartily  that  he  allowed  me  to 
live  in  an  age,  and  to  be  a  part  of  the  genera 
tion,  that  witnessed  the  downfall  and  extinc 
tion  of  American  slavery."  To  understand 
the  value  of  Greeley's  services  in  the  anti- 
slavery  contest  it  is  necessary  to  examine  the 
nature  of  that  contest,  the  diverse  views  of 
the  opponents  of  slavery,  the  public  opinion 
in  the  North  which  had  to  be  educated  and 
directed,  and  the  part  taken  in  this  work  by 
the  New  York  Tribune. 

The  early  opponents  of  slavery  in  the 
United  States  were  of  two  classes — first,  the 
Abolitionists,  technically  so-called,  who  re 
garded  slavery  as  a  moral  wrong  so  mon 
strous  that  their  consciences  demanded  its 
immediate  extinction;  and,  second,  those  who 
condemned  slavery,  but  recognized  the  rights 
of  the  slaveholders  under  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  and  confined  their  efforts  to  oppo 
sition  to  the  extension  of  slave  territory, 
hoping  for  the  gradual  extinction  of  the  insti 
tution  where  it  was  established.  Greeley  be 
longed  to  the  second  of  these  classes. 

In  view  of  Greeley's  inclination  to  asso 
ciate  himself  actively  with  reforms,  regard- 
124 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

less  of  hostile  criticism  or  the  effect  of  such 
association  on  his  personal  welfare,  it  seems 
somewhat  curious  that  we  do  not  find  him  en 
rolled  in  the  ranks  of  the  early  Abolitionists. 
He  says  that  one  of  the  incidents  of  his  so 
journ  in  East  Poultney,  Vt.,  which  made  a 
great  impression  on  him,  was  the  rescue  of  a 
slave  who  had  fled  there  from  New  York 
State,  and  who,  under  the  law  of  that  State, 
was  beholden  to  his  master  until  he  was  twen 
ty-eight  years  old.  "Our  people  hated  injus 
tice  and  oppression,"  was  the  only  explana 
tion  he  thought  it  necessary  to  give  of  their 
action.  The  early  Abolitionists,  too,  were  in 
sympathy  with  him  on  many  subjects.  E. 
Eogers,  in  the  Herald  of  Freedom,  said: 
"Abolitionists  are  generally  as  crazy  in  re 
gard  to  rum  and  tobacco  as  in  regard  to  sla 
very.  Some  of  them  refrain  from  eating  flesh 
and  drinking  tea  and  coffee.  .  .  .  They  do 
not  embrace  these  newfangled  notions  as 
Abolitionists,  but  their  one  fanaticism  leads 
to  another,  and  they  are  getting  to  be  mono 
maniacs,  as  the  Rev.  Brother  Purchard  calls 
us,  on  every  subject." 

But  Greeley  was  naturally  a  politician, 
and  his  early  editorial  career  educated  him 
in  the  belief  that,  in  a  republic,  political  par 
ties  must  be  the  means  through  which  polit- 
125 


Horace  Greeley 

ical  reforms  must  be  accomplished.  His  one 
political  idol,  Henry  Clay,  was  a  slaveholder, 
and  his  zeal  in  Clay's  behalf,  while  the  Ken- 
tuckian  was  a  presidential  possibility,  as  well 
as  his  devotion  to  a  protective  tariff,  assisted 
in  securing  his  acceptance  of  slavery  as  it 
existed,  so  long  as  the  South  was  not  actively 
striving  to  extend  the  slave  power. 

Moreover,  Greeley  classed  himself  as  a 
conservative,  and  some  of  his  definitions  of 
that  term  further  explain  his  attitude  toward 
the  Abolitionists.  Defining  in  his  autobiog 
raphy  Clay's  position  as  a  slaveholder,  he 
wrote:  "He  was  a  conservative  in  the  true 
sense  of  that  word — satisfied  to  hold  by  the 
present  until  he  could  see  clearly  how  to  ex 
change  it  for  the  better."  "Radicalism,"  he 
said  in  a  lecture,  "is  the  tornado,  the  earth 
quake,  which  comes,  acts,  and  is  gone  for  a 
century.  Conservatism  is  the  granite,  which 
may  be  chipped  away  here  and  there  to  build 
a  new  house  or  let  a  railroad  pass,  but  which 
will  substantially  abide  forever."  The  Abo 
litionists,  of  whom  Garrison  was  the  leading 
exponent,  were  radicals  of  the  most  ultra 
type.  Not  only  did  they  demand  the  imme 
diate  emancipation  of  all  slaves,  but  they 
pronounced  the  compact  between  North  and 
South  which  countenanced  slavery,  "a  cove- 
126 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

nant  with  death  and  an  agreement  with  hell," 
and  refused  to  vote  for  any  public  officer  un 
der  it,  no  matter  how  strongly  the  platform 
on  which  he  stood  opposed  slavery ;  and  they 
declared,  in  the  language  of  the  Liberator, 
that  "if  the  bodies  and  souls  of  millions  of 
rational  beings  must  be  sacrificed  as  the  price 
of  the  Union,  better,  far  better,  that  a  separa 
tion  took  place."  Of  the  constitution  of  the 
Non-resistance  Society,  whose  tenet  was  that 
no  man  or  government  has  the  right  to  take 
the  life  of  a  man  on  any  pretext,  drawn  by  a 
committee  of  which  he  was  chairman,  Garri 
son  wrote:  "It  swept  the  whole  surface  of 
society,  and  upturned  almost  every  existing 
institution  on  earth,"  one  plank  opposing  the 
completion  of  the  Bunker  Hill  monument. 
Many  Abolitionists  did  not,  it  is  true,  follow 
the  Garrisonians  in  their  extreme  views,  and 
Giddings  and  Chase  took  part  in  the  Free 
Soil  convention  of  1848  which  nominated  Van 
Buren  for  President ;  but  it  was  the  radicals 
who  were  the  type  in  the  public  eye. 

Greeley  was  a  boy  ten  years  old  when  the 
Missouri  compromise  was  adopted  by  Con 
gress  in  1821.  Under  that  compromise  the 
slavery  question  remained  quiescent  for 
many  years.  Slavery  had  not  long  been  abol 
ished  in  all  the  Northern  States,  and  it  ex- 
127 


Horace  Greeley 


isted  in  the  Southern  States  by  permission  of 
the  Constitution,  which  specifically  required 
that  slaves  escaping  into  another  State 
should  be  delivered  up.  The  few  Abolition 
ists  who  were  then  declaiming  against  this 
constitutional  status  were  tolerated  even  in 
the  North  solely  because  of  their  insignifi 
cance.  "Had  it  been  imagined,"  says  Gree 
ley,  "that  the  permanence  of  slavery  was  en 
dangered  by  their  efforts,  they  would  scarce 
ly  have  escaped  with  their  lives  from  any  city 
or  considerable  village  wherein  they  attempt 
ed  to  hold  forth."  Greeley's  own  position, 
during  the  years  of  quiescence,  he  thus  ex 
plained  in  his  autobiography:  "Slavery,  as  a 
local  institution,  was  primarily  the  business 
of  the  States  which  saw  fit  to  uphold  it.  ... 
Only  when  it  sought  to  involve  us  in  a  com 
mon  effort,  a  common  responsibility,  with 
its  upholders  and  champions,  did  it  force  us 
into  an  attitude  of  active,  determined  an 
tagonism." 

While  he  could  not  withhold  from  the 
Abolitionists  "a  certain  measure  of  sympa 
thy  for  their  great  and  good  object,"  he  failed 
to  see  how  they  were  assisting  to  secure  the 
end  in  view — how  the  conversion  of  all  the 
people  of  Vermont  to  Abolitionism  would 
overthrow  slavery  in  Georgia.  Hence,  "con- 
128 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

servative  by  instinct,  by  tradition,  and  dis 
inclined  to  reject  or  leave  undone  the  prac 
tical  good  within  reach,  while  straining  after 
the  ideal  good  that  was  clearly  unattainable, 
I  clung  fondly  to  the  Whig  party,  and  depre 
cated  the  Abolition,  or  third,  party  in  politics, 
as  calculated  fatally  to  weaken  the  only  great 
national  organization  which  was  likely  to  op 
pose  an  effective  resistance  to  the  persist 
ent  exactions  and  aggressions  of  the  slave 
power."  But  before  this  was  written,  Gree- 
ley  had  witnessed  the  death  of  the  Whig 
party,  because  it  did  not  make  its  resistance 
effective,  and  had  read,  if  not  written,  in  the 
Tribune  (November  24,  1847) :  "As  to  the 
Abolition  party,  its  movements  and  fulmina- 
tions  have  doubtless  had  the  evil  effect  ob 
served  by  Mr.  Clay,  of  irritating  and  alarm 
ing  the  masters  generally,  and  rendering 
most  of  them  impervious  to  the  arguments 
for  emancipation.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
their  efforts  have  served  to  awaken  and  fix 
public  attention,  and,  though  their  immediate 
influence  has  been  unfavorable,  we  are  not 
sure  that  the  existence  of  slavery  has  been 
protracted  by  their  labors  as  a  whole." 

The  vastness  of  the  task  required  of  those 
who  were  to  educate  public  opinion  in  the 
Northern  States  to  accept  slavery  as  a  moral 
*o  129 


Horace  Greeley 

wrong,  and  thus  to  array  itself  against  sla 
very  extension,  can  be  understood  by  an  ex 
amination  of  the  popular  opinion  on  the  sub 
ject  in  the  years  following  the  Missouri  com 
promise.  For  many  of  these  years  the 
opposition,  not  only  to  antislavery  agitation, 
but  to  negro  education  and  any  approach  to 
negro  equality,  was  quite  as  strong  in  the 
Northern  States  as  it  was  below  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  The  Liberator,  in  its  saluta 
tory,  said  that  "a  greater  revolution  was  to 
be  effected  in  the  Free  States — and  particu 
larly  in  New  England — than  at  the  South. 
I  [Garrison]  found  contempt  more  bitter,  op 
position  more  active,  detraction  more  relent 
less,  prejudice  more  stubborn  and  apathy 
more  frozen  than  among  slaveholders  them 
selves." 

The  list  of  antislavery  societies  in  the 
United  States  in  1826  shows  that  there  were 
none  in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
Massachusetts,  or  Connecticut,  and  only  one 
each  in  Rhode  Island  and  New  York,  while 
there  were  forty-one  in  North  Carolina, 
twenty-three  in  Tennessee,  four  in  Maryland, 
and  two  in  Virginia.  Edward  Everett  Hale 
recollects  when  black  boys  were  not,  except 
on  one  day,  allowed  by  the  bigger  white  boys 
to  have  the  freedom  of  Boston  Common;  and 
130 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

when  he  was  graduated  from  Harvard  Col 
lege  in  1839,  William  Francis  Channing  was 
the  only  one  of  his  classmates  who  would 
have  allowed  himself  to  be  called  an  Aboli 
tionist.  When,  in  October,  1835,  the  Female 
Antislavery  Society  of  Boston  proposed  to 
hold  a  public  meeting,  at  which  an  address 
would  be  made  by  George  Thompson,  an  elo 
quent  assailant  of  slavery,  handbills  were 
circulated  announcing  that  a  purse  of  $100 
had  been  raised  by  patriotic  citizens  "to  re 
ward  the  individual  who  shall  first  lay  vio 
lent  hands  on  Thompson  so  that  he  may 
be  brought  to  the  tar-kettle  before  dark. 
Friends  of  the  Union,  be  vigilant !  "  and  the 
meeting  was  broken  up  by  a  mob  which  the 
mayor  confessed  himself  unable  to  control. 
A  meeting  of  Abolitionists  in  Philadelphia, 
on  July  4,  1834,  was  made  the  occasion  of 
mob  violence,  in  which  Lewis  Tappen's  house 
was  gutted,  and  other  buildings,  including 
churches,  were  damaged,  and  unoffending 
negroes  were  assaulted  in  the  streets;  these 
disorders  continued  for  several  days,  and  ex 
tended  into  New  Jersey. 

The  public  animosity  shown  to  the  Abo 
litionists  in  the  North  was  quite  as  deter 
mined  against  any  attempt  to  better  the  con 
dition  of  negroes.    The  "Jim  Crow  "  cars  of 
131 


Horace  Greeley 


the  Southern  States  to-day  were  common  on 
Massachusetts  railroads  in  1840,  and  Higgin- 
son  remembers  when  a  colored  woman  was 
put  out  of  an  omnibus  near  Cambridge  Com 
mon.  When,  in  1831,  it  was  proposed  by  the 
free  people  of  color  to  establish  a  school  on 
the  manual  labor  plan,  and  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  was  selected  as  its  site,  a  meeting  of 
citizens  there  resolved  to  resist  it  by  every 
lawful  means.  Because  of  the  admission  of 
colored  students  to  Noyes's  Academy,  at  Ca 
naan,  N.  H.,  in  1835,  three  hundred  men  and 
one  hundred  yokes  of  oxen  moved  the  build 
ing  from  its  foundation.  When  Miss  Cran- 
dall,  a  Quakeress,  advertised  in  1832  that  col 
ored  pupils  would  be  admitted  to  her  school 
in  Canterbury,  Conn.,  a  town  meeting  was 
called  to  abate  "the  nuisance,"  and  the  town 
authorities  induced  the  Legislature  to  pass 
an  act  forbidding  any  school  in  the  State  for 
the  education  of  colored  persons  not  resi 
dents  of  the  State,  without  the  consent  of  the 
selectmen.  When  Miss  Crandall  persisted  in 
teaching  her  colored  pupils,  she  was  arrested 
and  confined  overnight  in  a  cell  whose  last 
occupant  had  been  a  murderer.  Failing  to 
secure  her  conviction,  her  neighbors,  in  1834, 
first  tried  to  burn  her  house,  and  later  so 
nearly  demolished  it  with  stones  and  clubs 
132 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

that  it  was  left  uninhabitable.  It  was  twenty 
years  later  than  this  that  Boston  witnessed 
the  scenes  which  accompanied  the  surrender 
of  Anthony  Burns.  In  1835  the  notes  of  a 
clergyman  who  tried  to  preach  against  sla 
very  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  were  torn  up;  an 
academy  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  was  demolished 
because  colored  pupils  were  admitted;  a 
clergyman  was  arrested  in  the  same  State 
while  delivering  an  antislavery  lecture,  and 
sentenced  to  three  months'  imprisonment  as 
a  disorderly  person;  and  in  1834  an  antisla 
very  celebration  in  the  Chatham  Street  chapel 
in  New  York  city  was  broken  up,  and  three 
days'  rioting  followed. 

The  most  potent  agent  that  could  have 
been  enlisted  in  the  work  of  changing  this 
public  opinion,  and  building  up  a  bulwark 
against  slavery  extension,  was  a  newspaper 
that  was  not  affiliated  with  the  radicals,  that 
was  the  leading  mouthpiece  (Greeley  said  it 
was  not  the  organ)  of  one  of  the  controlling 
political  parties  of  the  day,  that  was  edited 
by  a  man  who  possessed  in  a  large  degree 
the  confidence  of  his  readers,  and  that  had  a 
circulation  which  gave  his  words  a  wide  hear 
ing.  This  matter  of  circulation  is  an  impor 
tant  one  in  gaging  the  Tribune's  part  in  the 
overthrow  of  slavery.  The  Abolition  jour- 
133 


Horace  Greeley 


nals,  aside  from  the  fact  that  they  addressed, 
for  the  most  part,  readers  who  were  already 
convinced,  addressed  few  of  these.  Garri 
son's  Liberator  had  only  between  150  and 
2,500  subscribers  during  its  entire  career, 
and  the  National  Antislavery  Standard,  whose 
paying  circulation  in  1846  was  1,400,  was  kept 
alive  by  annual  bazaars.  The  Tribune's  cir 
culation  grew  with  the  intensity  of  its  anti- 
slavery  views,  and  in  January,  1854,  it  had  a 
circulation  of  96,000  for  its  weekly,  and  of 
130,000  for  its  total  issues.  How  Horace 
Greeley  led  on  his  readers,  step  by  step,  to 
face  the  great  issue,  we  may  now  learn  from 
the  words  he  addressed  to  them. 

When  conducting  the  New  Yorker,  in  1834, 
Greeley,  while  believing  slavery  "to  be  at  the 
bottom  of  most  of  the  evils  which  affect  the 
communities  of  the  South,"  accepted  and  de 
fended  the  right  to  be  let  alone,  as  regards 
this  question,  for  which  the  South  was  con 
tending.  His  paper  said  in  July  of  that  year : 
"The  Union  was  formed  with  a  perfect 
knowledge,  on  the  one  hand,  that  slavery  ex 
isted  in  the  South,  and,  on  the  other,  it  was 
utterly  disapproved  and  discountenanced  at 
the  North.  But  the  framers  of  the  Constitu 
tion  saw  no  reason  for  distrust  and  dissen 
sion  in  this  circumstance.  Wisely  avoiding 
134 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

all  discussion  of  a  subject  so  delicate  and  ex 
citing,  they  proceeded  to  the  formation  of  '  a 
more  perfect  union,'  which,  leaving  each  sec 
tion  in  possession  of  its  undoubted  right  of 
regulating  its  own  internal  government  and 
enjoying  its  own  speculative  opinions,  pro 
vided  only  for  the  common  benefit  and  mu 
tual  well-being  of  the  whole.  And  why  should 
not  this  arrangement  be  satisfactory  and  per 
fect  I  Why  should  not  even  the  existing  evils 
of  one  section  be  left  to  the  correction  of  its 
own  wisdom  and  experience  when  pointed  out 
by  the  unerring  finger  of  experience?  " 

The  New  Yorker  supplies  expressions  of 
the  editor's  views  of  the  agitation  stirred  up 
by  the  Abolitionists.  On  May  21,  1836,  con 
demning  an  attack  on  an  antislavery  conven 
tion  at  Granville,  Ohio,  it  expressed  a  hope 
that,  on  the  next  occasion  of  this  kind,  "the 
real  and  substantial  opponents  of  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation "  would  repress  the  mob 
pretending  to  act  in  their  behalf,  and  said: 
"It  is  quite  enough  to  have  some  hundreds 
of  Abolitionist  declaimers  exciting  the  public 
mind  with  regard  to  this  subject,  without 
obliging  us  to  look  with  complaisance  on  such 
suicidal  outrages  committed  in  the  name  of 
the  cause  of  moderation,  right,  reason,  and 
the  compromises  of  the  Constitution."  In 
135 


Horace  Greeley 


May,  1838,  referring  to  antiabolition  riots  in 
Philadelphia  which  resulted  in  the  burning  of 
Penn  Hall,  it  said,  "The  Abolitionists,  we 
doubt  not,  would  like  the  fun  of  having  their 
hall  burned  every  year,  and  their  chance  to 
make  ten  or  twenty  thousand  converts  out  of 
the  outrage  and  excitement.  Let  no  one  sup 
pose  us  inclined  to  treat  such  criminal  out 
rages  with  levity.  Such  humors  of  the  body 
politic  should  be  corrected  by  an  application 
of  grape  and  canister." 

Greeley  says  in  his  autobiography  that 
the  two  events  which  "materially  modified  " 
his  preconceptions  of  the  slavery  question 
were  the  attempts  of  the  South  to  annex 
Texas,  and  the  killing  of  Elijah  P.  Love  joy 
at  Alton,  111.,  in  1837,  because  he  insisted  on 
publishing  there  a  religious  newspaper  which 
condemned  slavery  as  one  of  the  evils  op 
posed  to  godliness.  The  New  Yorker  of  No 
vember  25  in  that  year  contained  an  editorial 
two  columns  long  giving  an  account  of  the 
murder,  and  saying : 

"We  dare  not  trust  ourselves  to  speak  of 
this  shocking  affair  in  the  language  which 
our  indignation  would  dictate.  It  forms  one 
of  the  foulest  blots  on  the  page  of  American 
history.  .  .  .  We  loathe  and  abhor  the  miser 
able  cant  of  those  who  talk  of  Mr.  Lovejoy  as 
136 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

guilty  of  '  resisting  public  opinion.'  Public 
opinion,  forsooth !  What  right  have  five  hun 
dred  or  five  thousand  to  interfere  with  the 
lawful  expression  of  a  freeman's  sentiments 
because  they  happen  to  number  more  than 
those  who  think  with  him?  We  spurn  the 
base  tyranny — this  utter  denial  of  all  rights 
save  as  the  tender  mercies  of  a  mob  shall 
vouchsafe  them.  .  .  .  Love  joy's  errors,  or 
those  of  Abolitionists  generally,  have  nothing 
to  do  in  any  shape  with  the  turpitude  of  this 
outrage." 

This  protest  was  uttered  when  the  Boston 
authorities  were  refusing  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  in  which  to  hold 
a  meeting  to  condemn  Love  joy's  murder,  and 
when  the  Attorney-General  of  Massachusetts 
was  declaring  on  the  platform  that  Love  joy 
died  as  the  fool  dieth,  and  that  his  murderers 
stood  for  what  the  men  stood  who  threw  the 
tea  into  Boston  harbor! 

The  Texas  question  played  so  important 
a  part  in  the  antislavery  contest  that  a  brief 
summary  of  the  events  involved  is  necessary 
to  an  understanding  of  Greeley's  attitude. 
Americans  who  had  received  grants  of  land 
in  Texas  from  Mexico  adopted  a  constitution 
in  1833,  and  in  1836  declared  their  independ 
ence.  The  massacre  of  the  Alamo,  avenged 
137 


Horace  Greeley 


in  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  followed.  The 
constitution  of  the  independent  State  of  Tex 
as  gave  its  sanction  to  the  institution  of  sla 
very,  which  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  Mexi 
co,  and  the  news  of  the  victory  at  San  Jacinto 
was  received  with  joy  in  the  Southern  States, 
from  which  petitions  were  sent  to  Congress 
asking  for  the  recognition  of  Texan  inde 
pendence.  Webster  held  that  our  Govern 
ment  ought  to  recognize  a  de  facto  govern 
ment  in  Texas,  if  one  had  been  established, 
and  Clay  reported  a  resolution  acknowledg 
ing  that  obligation  whenever  our  Government 
received  satisfactory  information  that  such 
a  government  was  in  operation,  and  his  reso 
lution  was  adopted  by  both  Houses.  Mean 
while,  claims  against  the  Mexican  Govern 
ment,  made  by  Americans,  were  piling  up 
and  were  disregarded.  In  December,  1836, 
the  United  States  charge  d'affaires  at  the 
city  of  Mexico  asked  for  his  passports  and 
departed,  and  in  February,  1837,  President 
Jackson,  who  had  tried  in  vain  to  purchase 
Texas  of  Mexico,  in  a  special  message  to 
Congress  asked  for  power  to  make  reprisals 
if  the  Mexican  Government  refused  to  meet 
its  obligations. 

Webster  made  a  speech  in  Niblo's  Garden, 
New  York  city,  on  March  15,  1837,  which,  in 
138 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

Greeley's  view,  expressed  "the  more  consider 
ate  Northern  view  of  the  [Texas  annexation] 
subject"  at  that  time.  In  that  speech  he 
said: 

"On  the  general  question  of  slavery  a 
great  portion  of  the  community  is  already 
strongly  excited.  The  subject  has  not  only 
attracted  attention  as  a  question  of  politics, 
but  it  has  started  a  far  deeper-toned  chord. 
It  has  arrested  the  religious  feeling  of  the 
country;  it  has  taken  strong  hold  on  the 
consciences  of  men.  He  is  a  rash  man,  in 
deed,  and  little  conversant  with  human  na 
ture,  and  especially  has  he  a  very  erroneous 
estimate  of  the  character  of  the  people  of  this 
country,  who  supposes  that  a  feeling  of  this 
kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  despised.  It  will 
assuredly  cause  itself  to  be  respected.  It  may 
be  reasoned  with ;  it  may  be  made  willing — I 
believe  it  is  entirely  willing — to  fulfil  all  ex 
isting  engagements  and  all  existing  duties,  to 
uphold  and  defend  the  Constitution  as  it  is 
established,  with  whatever  regrets  about 
some  provisions  which  it  does  actually  con 
tain.  But  to  coerce  it  into  silence,  to  endeavor 
to  restrain  it  from  expression,  to  seek  to  com 
press  and  confine  it,  warm  as  it  is,  and  more 
heated  as  such  endeavors  would  inevitably 
render  it — should  this  be  attempted,  I  know 
139 


Horace  Greeley 


nothing,  not  even  in  the  Constitution  or  in 
the  Union  itself,  which  would  not  be  endan 
gered  by  the  explosion  which  might  follow." 

President  Van  Buren  in  his  message  of 
December,  1837,  informed  Congress  of  his 
failure  to  adjust  the  American  claims.  The 
Texas  Government  had  proposed  annexation 
to  our  Government  in  August  of  that  year, 
but  Van  Buren  refused  to  entertain  a  propo 
sition  that  was  certain  to  involve  us  in  a  war 
with  Mexico.  This  action  of  Texas  aroused 
the  country.  The  Legislatures  of  eight 
Northern  States  made  formal  protests 
against  annexation,  and  Senator  Preston,  of 
South  Carolina,  offered  a  resolution  favoring 
it,  but  no  direct  issue  was  reached.  Van  Bu 
ren  continued  attempts  to  secure  a  settlement 
with  Mexico,  and  in  1839,  by  means  of  a 
treaty,  the  matter  was  referred  to  the  King 
of  Prussia  as  arbitrator;  but  when  the  time 
at  which  the  arrangement  was  to  expire 
(1842)  arrived,  many  claims  remained  unset 
tled.  It  was  charged  then  that  these  claims 
were  allowed  to  remain  unadjusted  in  order 
to  keep  the  Texas  question  open. 

Tyler's     elevation     to     the     presidency, 

through   the   death   of   Harrison,   gave   the 

country  an  executive  who  was  ready  to  make 

Texas  annexation  a  part  of  his  policy,  no 

140 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

matter  how  the  party  that  had  elected  him 
viewed  the  matter.  Six  months  after  his  in 
auguration  he  hinted  to  Webster  the  possi 
bility  of  securing  Texas  by  treaty,  and  asked, 
"Could  the  North  be  reconciled  to  it?  Sla 
very — I  know  that  is  the  objection,  and  it 
would  be  well  founded  if  it  did  not  already 
exist  among  us."  But  when,  in  March,  1842, 
Texas  made  another  offer  of  annexation, 
Webster  strongly  opposed  it,  and  in  May, 
1843,  he  left  the  Cabinet — too  late  to  escape 
the  criticisms  of  his  warmest  party  friends. 
The  new  Secretary  of  State — Upshur,  of  Vir 
ginia — was  a  strong  annexationist,  and  the 
administration  began  at  once  secretly  to  take 
steps  to  carry  out  its  policy.  The  elections 
of  1842  had  given  the  Democrats  a  big  major 
ity  in  the  House,  but  the  Senate  had  to  be 
reckoned  with  in  securing  the  ratification  of 
an  annexation  treaty.  The  administration 
made  a  direct  proposal  of  such  a  treaty  to 
Texas,  and,  after  the  Texas  Government  had 
received  from  the  United  States'  diplomatic 
agent  an  assurance  that  no  power  would  be 
permitted  by  the  United  States  to  invade 
Texas  territory  because  of  such  a  treaty,  an 
envoy  from  Texas  was  sent  to  Washington  to 
complete  the  negotiations.  Before  his  arrival 
Upshur  had  been  killed  by  the  explosion  on 
141 


Horace  Greeley 


the  frigate  Princeton;  in  March,  1844,  Cal- 
houn  took  his  place;  and  on  April  12  the 
treaty  was  signed  and  ten  days  later  sent  to 
the  Senate,  where,  on  June  8,  it  was  defeated 
by  a  vote  of  sixteen  yeas  to  thirty-five  nays. 
Tyler  at  once,  in  a  special  message,  urged 
the  House  to  secure  annexation  by  "some 
other  form  of  proceeding,"  but  Congress  ad 
journed  without  carrying  out  the  scheme. 

The  year  1844  was  a  presidential  year, 
and  the  most  probable  candidates  for  the 
heads  of  the  two  tickets  were  Clay  and  Van 
Buren.  Both  of  these  leaders  looked  on  the 
Texas  question  as  a  dangerous  one,  and  two 
years  earlier,  when  Van  Buren  visited  Clay 
at  Ashland,  it  was  said  that  they  had  agreed 
to  place  themselves  in  opposition  to  annexa 
tion.  Clay  found  himself  forced  to  define  his 
position  before  the  Whig  convention  met,  and 
he  did  so  in  his  "Raleigh  letter  "  of  April  17. 
In  this  he  stated  his  belief  that  any  title  to 
Texas  which  our  Government  had  received 
under  the  Louisiana  purchase  had  been  ceded 
to  Spain  by  subsequent  treaty;  that  the 
United  States  should  not  go  to  war  with  Mex 
ico  to  secure  Texas,  and  that  he  was  not  in 
favor  of  acquiring  new  territory  simply  to 
maintain  a  balance  of  power  between  the 
North  and  South.  Van  Buren  also  wrote  a 
142 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

letter,  in  which  he  did  not  admit  the  constitu 
tionality  of  acquiring  Texas  by  treaty,  and 
pointed  out  that  annexation  meant  war  with 
Mexico,  but  said  that  he  was  not  to  be  "in 
fluenced  by  local  or  sectional  feelings  "  in 
dealing  with  such  a  question  as  slavery. 
Clay's  nomination  followed,  but  Van  Buren 
was  thrown  over  by  the  Democrats  for  Polk, 
although  he  had  a  majority  on  the  first  ballot, 
a  resolution  requiring  a  two-thirds  vote  to 
nominate  having  been  carried.  Some  Aboli 
tionists,  under  the  name  of  the  Liberty  party, 
had  in  August,  1843,  nominated  James  G. 
Birney  as  their  candidate. 

Greeley  was  educated  by  the  Texas  con 
troversy  step  by  step.  The  New  Yorker  in 
October,  1836,  opposed  annexation  as  likely 
to  cause  a  revival  of  the  slavery  controversy 
"so  happily  adjusted  "  by  the  Missouri  com 
promise.  On  February  18,  1837,  announcing 
the  vote  of  the  House  denying  to  slaves  the 
right  of  petition,  it  expressed  a  hope  that  thus 
"the  Abolition  question,  which  has  so  consid 
erably  misimproved  the  time  and  temper  of 
the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  was  put  to 
rest,  we  trust,  for  the  remainder  of  the  ses 
sion."  On  the  twenty-third  of  December  fol 
lowing,  it  headed  an  account  of  the  excite 
ment  in  Congress  over  the  presentation  of 
143 


Horace  Greeley 


petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  "By  our  latest  advices 
from  Washington  we  learn  that  the  event 
which  we  have  long  anticipated — a  disrup 
tion  of  the  ties  which  bind  us  together  as 
a  nation,  through  the  influence  of  the  Abo 
lition  question — seems  on  the  brink  of  oc 
currence." 

Before  the  Tribune  was  a  year  old  its  ed 
itor's  patience  was  tried  by  a  decision  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  (Prigg  -vs. 
Pennsylvania)  that  the  right  of  a  slaveholder 
to  capture  a  fugitive  slave  anywhere  was  ab 
solute,  State  laws  to  the  contrary  notwith 
standing,  and  it  said,  "  The  effect  of  this  deci 
sion  will  be  to  deepen  the  impression  on  the 
public  mind  that  the  existence  of  slavery  for 
some  is  inconsistent  with,  and  fatal  to,  the 
preservation  of  perfect  freedom  for  any." 

Greeley's  greatest  effort  in  behalf  of  a 
presidential  candidate  was  made  for  Clay, 
whose  name  he  had  kept  at  the  head  of  his 
editorial  page  throughout  1843,  and  for 
whose  election  he  labored  the  next  year  as  he 
never  labored  again.  Clay's  status  as  a  slave 
owner  was  the  subject  of  attacks  (which  the 
Tribune  called  "a  foul  conspiracy")  by  the 
Democrats  and  the  Liberty  men,  both  before 
and  after  his  nomination,  and  on  January  16, 
144 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

1843,  the  Tribune  stated  its  own  view  of  the 
matter  thus : 

"Let  no  one  pervert  our  position.  We  do 
not  say  the  citizens  of  the  free  States  have  no 
means,  no  power,  no  right  to  act  adversely 
upon  slavery.  They  have  means  and  powers 
which  existed  antecedently  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  were  not  affected  by  it.  The  right 
to  speak  and  write  and  labor,  as  men,  against 
any  moral  wrong,  is  anterior  (might  we  not 
say  superior)  to  all  government.  .  .  .  We 
can  excuse  the  thoroughgoing  Abolitionist 
who,  declaring  the  Constitution  an  iniquitous 
compact,  refuses  to  vote  or  exercise  any  fran 
chise  under  it.  But  he  who  uses  the  power 
granted  by  the  Constitution  in  violation  of  its 
essential  conditions,  is  guilty  of  a  deep  and 
moral  wrong.  ...  To  abandon  Clay  on  such 
[slavery]  grounds  would  be  a  breach  of  faith 
to  the  Whigs,  and  treason  to  the  Constitu 
tion." 

After  the  nominations  were  made  the 
Tribune  defended  Polk  in  the  same  way. 

Greeley's  early  objection  to  the  annexa 
tion  of  Texas  was  based  on  the  view  that  it 
would  be  a  glaring  assumption  of  Federal 
power,  rather  than  that  it  would  furnish  new 
territory  to  slavery;  and  after  Clay's  nomi 
nation  the  Tribune  (May  16,  1844)  "depre- 
"  145 


Horace  Greeley 

cated,  for  reasons  of  policy,  any  Northern 
commingling  of  the  questions  of  annexation 
and  slavery  for  the  present."  In  other  words, 
Greeley  as  well  as  Clay  would  have  been  glad 
to  keep  the  slavery  question  out  of  the  pend 
ing  campaign.  But  Tyler's  Texas  scheme  so 
aroused  the  editor's  indignation  that  no  ques 
tion  of  "policy"  could  quiet  his  "abhor 
rence  "  of  the  President,  whose  impeachment 
for  moving  troops  to  the  Sabine  he  suggest 
ed.  .When  warned  of  the  effect  of  its  opposi 
tion  to  annexation  on  the  Whig  ticket,  the 
Tribune  (June  12),  while  conceding  that  the 
annexation  question  would  cause  Clay  to  lose 
Louisiana,  and  make  Georgia  and  Tennessee 
very  close,  replied,  "Nay,  friends,  we  always 
say  what  we  think  when  we  speak  at  all." 
The  slavery  question  was,  however,  "com 
mingled  "  with  Texas  annexation,  and  Gree 
ley  was  soon  forced  to  recognize  this,  and  to 
change  his  front.  This  he  did  in  an  editorial 
on  August  31,  in  which  he  thus  expressed 
himself : 

"We  see  in  this  Texas  iniquity,  from  its 
first  secret  and  fraudulent  inception  in  Ten 
nessee  and  at  the  White  House  ten  years  ago 
to  its  present  maturity,  a  conspiracy  to  cir 
cumvent  '  the  inevitable  laws  of  population,' 
and  thereby  secure  a  prolonged  and  unnatural 
146 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

duration  of  slavery.  To  this  conspiracy  the 
free  States  can  not  become  parties,  even  by  a 
skulking  connivance,  without  fearful  guilt. 
They  ought  to  have  taken  their  stand  against 
any  extension  of  their  responsibility  for  sla 
very  when  Louisiana  was  acquired,  but  they 
neglected  it,  and  thereby  prolonged  the  ex 
istence  of  slavery  in  the  Union  at  least  half 
a  century." 

On  November  28,  following  Clay's  defeat, 
the  Tribune  set  forth  its  views  on  Texas  and 
slavery  in  an  editorial  nearly  two  columns 
long.  Still  deprecating  all  sectional  agita 
tion,  it  reaffirmed  its  belief  that  the  Govern 
ment  had  no  right  to  meddle  with  slavery  in 
the  existing  slave  States,  but  the  danger  of 
the  disposition  of  those  States  to  grasp  for 
power  was  indicated,  and  its  summing  up 
(with  its  own  italics)  was  as  follows:  "Brief 
ly,  then,  we  stand  on  the  ground  of  Opposi 
tion  to  the  Annexation  of  Texas  so  long  as 
a  vestige  of  slavery  shall  remam  within  her 
borders."  This  marked  the  throwing  down 
of  the  Tribune's  gantlet  to  the  slave  power. 

The  Texas  annexation  resolution  passed 
the  House  on  January  25,  1845  (with  the  aid 
of  eight  Southern  Whig  votes,  twenty-seven 
Democrats  voting  nay),  and  the  Senate  on 
February  27  (three  Whigs  voting  yea).  The 
147 


Horace  Greeley 


Tribune's  comment  was:  "The  mischief  is 
done,  and  we  are  now  involved  in  war.  We 
have  adopted  a  war  ready-made,  and  taken 
upon  ourselves  its  prosecution  to  the  end." 
It  was  not  ready,  however,  to  join  the  Aboli 
tionists,  and  when  a  Western  Whig  journal 
proposed,  in  the  following  spring,  that  the 
party  raise  the  standard  of  emancipation,  it 
declared  that,  for  itself,  it  should  continue 
to  act  in  good  faith  with  all,  North  and 
South,  who  supported  Whig  principles ;  "  if 
we  shall  ever  feel  that  this  is  no  longer 
possible,  the  Federal  Union  will  for  us  exist 
no  longer." 

Greeley  was  a  zealous  advocate  of  Clay's 
nomination  as  the  Whig  presidential  candi 
date  again  in  1848,  while  conceding  that  it 
was  just  that  the  head  of  the  Whig  ticket 
should  be  a  citizen  of  a  free  State,  and  he 
came  home  from  the  convention  cast  down. 
The  convention  had  given  the  nomination  to 
General  Taylor,  and  had  laid  on  the  table  and 
refused  to  vote  on  a  resolution  pledging  the 
delegates  "to  abide  the  nomination  with  the 
understanding  that  the  nominee,  in  good 
faith,  accepts  of  it,  and  adheres  to  the  great 
principles  of  the  Whig  party — no  extension 
of  slavery,  and  in  favor  of  American  indus 
try."  Greeley  had  stated  in  advance  his  ob- 
148 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

jections  to  General  Taylor — the  fact  that  his 
views  on  public  questions  were  not  known, 
that  he  was  supported  as  a  slave-owner,  and 
that  his  election  would  stimulate  the  war 
spirit,  and  set  a  bad  example  to  young  men. 
He  did  not  place  the  ticket  at  the  head  of  the 
Tribune's  columns,  but  in  a  long  editorial  re 
viewed  the  situation,  and  said:  "We  shall 
take  time  for  reflection.  If  it  shall  appear 
to  us  that  the  support  of  General  Taylor  is 
the  only  course  by  which  the  election  of  Cass 
can  be  prevented,  we  shall  feel  bound  to  con 
cur  in  that  support."  The  Free-soil  Demo 
crats  called  a  convention  to  meet  in  Buffalo 
on  August  9,  and  on  July  31  the  Tribune  re 
stated  its  objections  to  Taylor,  and  refused 
to  come  out  for  him  until  the  Buffalo  conven 
tion  and  the  August  elections  made  it  certain 
that  Taylor  or  Cass  must  be  chosen.  On 
June  27  a  Taylor  ratification  meeting  was 
held  in  New  York  city,  which  adopted  the 
following  among  other  resolutions: 

"Resolved,  That  we  deprecate  sectional 
issues  in  a  national  canvass,  as  dangerous  to 
the  Union  and  injurious  to  the  public  good; 
that  we  look  with  confidence  to  a  Whig  ad 
ministration  to  remove  all  causes  for  such  is 
sues,  and  that  we  will  countenance  no  faction 
of  the  Whig  party,  and  no  coalition  with  any 
149 


Horace  Greeley 


faction  out  of  it,  which  shall  threaten  to 
array  one  section  of  our  common  country  in 
angry  hostility  against  another." 

This  was  the  voice  of  those  Northern 
"business  interests  "  which  gave  so  much  en 
couragement  to  the  slave  power,  and  Greeley 
seized  the  opportunity  to  rebuke  it.  The 
Tribune  the  next  day  declared  that  the  sim 
ple  meaning  of  the  resolution  was  that 
"strenuous  and  consistent  hostility  to  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  is  factious,"  and  con 
tinued  : 

"Gentlemen  of  Wall  Street,  and  sharp, 
shrewd  calculators  generally !  be  entreated  to 
understand  this  matter  aright.  The  hearts 
of  the  people  are  fully  set  in  them  to  stop  the 
passage  of  the  Eio  Grande  by  Human  Slavery, 
and  they  will  not  be  turned  aside.  They  may 
be  cajoled,  deluded,  and  betrayed;  but  if  they 
shall  be,  then  woe  to  their  betrayers.  The 
Whigs  of  the  North  want  to  vote  with  their 
party,  for  President  and  all,  if  they  can  do 
so  without  voting  to  favor  the  extension  of 
slavery,  and  that  you  must  not  ask  them  to 
do  unless  you  wish  to  upset  your  dish  alto 
gether.  .  .  .  Over  and  over  again  this  State 
has  said,  through  her  Legislature  and  her 
delegation  in  Congress,  '  There  must  be  no 
planting  of  slavery  on  free  soil.'  Do  you 
150 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

think  you  can  stifle  this  by  your  babble  of 
'  faction '  and  *  sectional  issues  '!  " 

Of  the  Van  Buren-Adams  ticket,  nomi 
nated  at  Buffalo,  it  said  that  it  presumed  that 
that  ticket  would  receive  the  votes  of  nearly 
all  who  regarded  resistance  to  slavery  exten 
sion  as  the  paramount  duty  of  the  day,  and 
indicated  that  it  was  among  those  so  defined 
by  declaring  that,  while  it  did  not  lose  sight 
of  the  importance  of  the  protection  of  home 
industries,  internal  improvements,  a  sound 
financial  policy,  etc.,  it  deemed  "the  limita 
tion  of  slavery  to  its  present  legal  domain 
more  imminent  than  any  or  all  of  them."  It 
gave  more  attention  to  Irish  than  American 
politics  in  August  and  September;  but  the 
Whig  hold  on  Greeley  was  a  strong  one,  and 
at  a  meeting  in  Vauxhall  on  September  27 
he  confessed  his  belief  that  only  by  support 
ing  Taylor  could  Cass  be  defeated,  and  the 
Taylor  ticket  appeared  on  his  editorial  page 
two  days  later.  He  never,  however,  became 
enthusiastic  over  the  candidate,  and,  writing 
from  Washington  to  the  Tribune  about  the 
inauguration  ball,  he  said:  "Had  the  dancing 
part  of  my  education  been  less  shockingly 
neglected,  I  should  not  have  felt  like  dancing 


now." 


While  a  member  of  Congress   (Greeley 
151 


Horace  Greeley 


was  elected  that  year)  he  took  every  oppor 
tunity  to  oppose  the  slave  power.  He  did  not 
obtain  the  floor  to  speak  in  favor  of  the  reso 
lution  (which  was  passed)  declaring  the  traf 
fic  in  human  beings  as  chattels  in  Washing 
ton  "a  notorious  reproach  to  our  country 
throughout  Christendom,"  and  directing  the 
reporting  of  a  bill  prohibiting  the  slave-trade 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  he  wrote  to 
the  Tribune,  "I  could  have  wished  that  it  had 
occurred  on  Forefathers'  Day;  but  perhaps 
it  is  better  as  it  is.  The  sons  of  the  Pilgrims 
throughout  the  Union,  as  they  assemble  to 
morrow  to  celebrate  their  fathers'  landing  on 
these  shores,  may  greet  each  other  on  the  de 
cision  of  to-day."  He  opposed  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery  in  New  Mexico,  and,  when  it 
was  proposed  to  refer  the  Texas  boundary 
question  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
he  objected  on  the  ground  that  a  majority  of 
the  court  were  slave-owners. 

The  next  great  slavery  contest  that  en 
gaged  the  attention  of  the  country  was  over 
the  famous  Clay  "Compromise  of  1850."  In 
his  autobiography  Greeley  says,  "Mr.  Clay's 
proffer  seemed  to  me  candid  and  fair  to  the 
North,  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  newly  ac 
quired  territories."  But  even  this  guarded 
statement  does  not  give  a  fair  presentation 
152 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

of  Greeley's  part  in  this  struggle.  He  did 
not  accept  any  part  of  the  compromise  at  the 
start.  He  announced  open  rebellion  against 
his  old  leader's  position.  He  repudiated  the 
argument  of  Webster  in  the  7th  of  March 
speech.  He  did  ally  himself,  later  in  the  con 
test,  with  the  compromisers,  but  only  to  find 
that  the  so-called  compromise  was  an  apple  of 
discord,  which  did  as  much  as  anything  else 
preceding  the  war  to  arouse  Northern  opin 
ion,  make  clear  the  aim  of  the  slave  power, 
and  elect  an  antislavery  President. 

Clay's  compromise  and  Webster's  famous 
speech  had  their  origin  in  the  fear  that  the 
South  would  attempt  to  destroy  the  Union, 
and  Henry  Wilson  almost  excuses  Webster 
in  view  of  the  picture  which  the  orator  drew 
of  the  conflict  that  such  an  attempt  would 
incite.  The  South  had  been  growing  more 
and  more  restless  under  the  continued  oppo 
sition  to  the  introduction  of  slavery  in  Cali 
fornia  and  New  Mexico,  the  activity  of  the 
Northern  Abolitionists,  and  such  an  indica 
tion  of  the  Northern  temper  as  was  seen  in 
the  vote  concerning  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  Greeley  did  not  believe  that  the 
body  politic  in  the  South  would  ever  mean 
disunion,  and  he  was  not  to  be  coerced  by  the 
threats  of  what  he  considered  to  be  the  voice 
153 


Horace  Greeley 

of  only  the  actual  slave-owners.  With  a 
speech  by  Calhoun  in  the  Senate  as  a  text, 
the  Tribune  said  on  June  29,  1848 : 

"Thanks  to  a  kind  providence,  and  the 
manly  straightforwardness  of  John  C.  Cal 
houn,  the  great  question  of  the  extension  or 
non-extension  of  human  slavery  under  the 
flag  of  this  republic  is  to  be  pressed  to  a  deci 
sion  now.  .  .  .  Human  slavery  is  at  deadly 
feud  with  the  common  law,  the  common  sense, 
and  the  conscience  of  mankind ;  nobody  pre 
tends  to  justify  it  but  those  who  share  in  its 
gains  and  its  guilt.  God,  Man,  Nature,  Re 
ligion,  Law,  Reason,  are  all  against  it.  ... 
If  the  slavery  propagandists  are  ready  for 
the  inevitable  struggle,  let  no  retreat  be 
beaten  by  the  champions  of  universal  Free 
dom.  The  people  are  looking  on." 1 

On  December  23, 1848,  a  secret  conference 
of  the  Senators  and  Representatives  from  the 
Southern  States  was  held  in  the  Senate  cham- 


1  The  New  York  Evening  Post,  on  January  4,  1850,  charged 
that  the  editor  of  the  Tribune,  before  he  got  home  from  Con 
gress,  was  willing  to  divide  the  new  territories  with  the  slave 
holders  upon  equitable  terms.  Greeley  was  out  of  town  when 
this  appeared,  but  on  his  return,  in  the  Tribune  of  January  12, 
he  made  his  oft-quoted  reply :  "  You  lie,  villain  I  wilfully, 
wickedly,  basely  lie!  The  editor  of  the  Tribune  was  never 
willing  to  divide  the  territories  with  the  slaveholders  on  any 
terms  whatever." 

154 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

her,  and,  after  a  number  of  adjourned  meet 
ings,  a  long  address  to  their  constituents  was 
adopted,  a  motion  to  table  the  subject  being 
lost  by  a  vote  of  yeas,  28 ;  nays,  60.  This  ad 
dress,  after  reviewing  the  constitutional  pro 
vision  concerning  slavery,  asserted  the  right 
of  slave-owners  to  recover  their  slaves  in 
free  States,  set  forth  the  obstacles  devised 
thereto  and  the  existence  of  "secret  combina 
tions  "  in  Northern  States  to  induce  slaves  to 
escape;  and  complained  of  the  "systematic 
agitation  of  the  [slavery]  question  by  the 
Abolitionists,"  which  it  pronounced  "danger 
ous  to  the  rights  of  the  South,  and  subversive 
of  one  of  the  ends  for  which  the  Constitution 
was  established."  Regarding  slavery  in  the 
Territories,  it  laid  down  this  doctrine:  "We 
ask  not  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  .  .  . 
What  we  do  insist  on  is  that  we  shall  not  be 
prohibited  from  migrating,  with  our  proper 
ty,  into  the  Territories  of  the  United  States 
because  we  are  slaveholders."  The  enact 
ments  proposed  in  Congress  to  abolish  sla 
very  and  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  were  cited,  and  it  was  declared  that 
these  "  measures  of  aggression  "  must  be  met. 
Finally,  the  address  strenuously  urged  "  uni 
ted  action  "  on  the  part  of  the  South,  closing 
thus:  "As  the  assailed,  you  would  stand  jus- 
155 


Horace  Greeley 


tified  by  all  laws,  human  and  divine,  in  repel 
ling  a  blow  so  dangerous  without  looking  to 
consequences,  and  to  resort  to  all  means  nec 
essary  for  that  purpose.  Your  assailants, 
and  not  you,  would  be  responsible  for  the 
consequences." 

The  proceedings  of  these  caucuses  were 
published  on  January  30,  and  the  Tribune 
with  them  printed  an  editorial  in  which  it  as 
serted  that  nothing  was  ever  "better  adapted 
to  the  great  work  of  arousing  and  fixing  the 
North,"  and  added:  "Then,  as  to  the  other 
monstrous  grievance,  the  free  States — 
shamed  into  manhood  by  the  Abolitionists  of 
various  species  * — will  not  permit  the  exten 
sion  of  slavery.  The  vast  regions  that  came 
to  us  free  must  remain  so." 

In  October,  1849,  a  State  convention  in 
California  adopted  unanimously  a  constitu 
tion  which  excluded  slavery,  and  this  was  rati 
fied  by  the  people  by  a  vote  of  12,066  to  811. 
At  the  instance  of  Mississippi,  a  convention 
of  the  Southern  people  was  called  to  meet  in 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  June,  1850,  to  deliberate 
on  the  threatened  rights  of  the  South,  and 

1  This  was  anticipatory  of  Lincoln's  declaration :  "  I  have 
been  only  the  instrument.  The  logic  and  moral  power  of 
Garrison  and  the  antislavery  people  of  the  country,  and  the 
army,  have  done  all." 

156 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

talk  of  disunion  became  more  wide-spread. 
In  the  North  public  opinion  was  quite  as  em 
phatic,  and  by  July,  1849,  the  Legislature  of 
every  free  State  but  Iowa  had  instructed  its 
representatives  in  Congress  to  vote  against 
the  introduction  of  slavery  in  territories 
where  it  was  not  already  authorized.  In  Jan 
uary,  1850,  President  Taylor  recommended  to 
Congress  the  admission  of  California. 

On  January  29  of  that  year  Clay  intro 
duced  his  famous  compromise  resolutions. 
They  favored  the  admission  of  California, 
and  the  establishment  of  territorial  govern 
ments  in  lands  acquired  from  Mexico,  without 
any  conditions  as  to  slavery;  declared  it  in 
expedient  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  while  it  continued  in  Maryland, 
and  without  the  consent  of  the  people  of  the 
District,  but  opposed  the  slave-trade  therein; 
pronounced  in  favor  of  a  more  efficient  provi 
sion  for  the  restitution  of  fugitive  slaves,  and 
asserted  that  Congress  had  no  power  to  pro 
hibit  or  abolish  trade  in  slaves  between  slave- 
holding  States. 

The  Tribune  parted  from  its  leader  at 
once,  and  on  January  31  compared  Clay's  ef 
fort  to  secure  peace  to  the  man  who  rushed 
between  a  fighting  husband  and  wife,  and  was 
whipped  by  both.  "No,"  it  declared,  "we  are 
157 


Horace  Greeley 


not  yet  ready  for  compromise  on  either  side. 
Thus  far  our  side  has  lost  by  compromise, 
and  gained  by  struggles.  We  know  well  that 
Mr.  Clay's  heart  is  right,  and  that  his  views 
are  temperate  and  far-seeing.  But  their 
adoption  by  the  North  as  its  own,  in  the  pres 
ent  state  of  the  case,  is  quite  another  affair." 
On  February  1  it  added  to  this  protest,  "To 
countermarch  in  the  face  of  a  determined  and 
formidable  foe  is  peril  if  not  ruin.  Our  tower 
of  strength  and  of  safety  is  the  Wilmot  pro 
viso."  "Let  the  Union  be  a  thousand  times 
shivered,"  it  said  two  weeks  later,  "rather 
than  we  should  aid  you  to  plant  slavery  on 
free  soil." 

Greeley  devoted  a  column  on  March  9  to 
the  notable  speech  of  Daniel  Webster  made 
two  days  previous.  The  following  citations 
will  show  his  spirit : 

"At  such  a  crisis  as  the  present  there  is 
no  safe  light  but  that  of  principle.  He  who 
tries  to  be  guided  by  any  other  will  err  in  the 
fruitless  vague,  or  land  his  followers  in  the 
ditch.  Expediency  may  debate  the  steps  to 
be  taken,  but  it  must  be  principle  that  deter 
mines  the  end.  ...  It  takes  courage  to  face 
an  enemy  in  battle;  it  takes  more  courage 
to  confront  a  great  enemy  in  politics.  .  .  . 
The  position  that  Northern  States  and  their 
158 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

citizens  are  morally  bound  to  recapture  fugi 
tive  slaves  may  be  good  for  a  lawyer,  but  it 
is  not  good  for  a  man.  .  .  .  But  the  Union! 
Preserve  the  Union.  .  .  .  We  say  that  it  is 
not  in  danger!  Thank  God,  it  does  not  exist 
by  the  pleasure  of  politicians,  but  by  an  over 
ruling  necessity  of  things.  It  can  not  be  dis 
solved.  It  is  not  only  the  enactment  of  Na 
ture  and  God,  but  it  is  fortified  by  an  admi 
rable  Constitution,  by  the  whole  power  of  the 
American  people,  and  by  the  clear-headed, 
true-hearted,  and  strong-handed  administra 
tion  which  now  guides  our  destiny." 

But  Greeley  abandoned  the  vital  part  of 
the  views  he  had  thus  set  forth.  When,  after 
a  debate  of  three  months,  a  bill,  reported  by 
a  special  committee  of  which  Clay  was  chair 
man,  and  known  as  the  "omnibus  bill,"  con 
taining  the  substance  of  Clay's  resolutions, 
was  reported,  Greeley  went  to  Washington, 
and  in  his  correspondence  with  the  Tribune 
classed  himself  among  the  compromisers. 
This  bill  was  in  itself  a  further  compromise, 
as  it  omitted  Clay's  original  declaration  that 
"slavery  does  not  exist  by  law."  The  Trib 
une  even  abandoned  that  "tower  of  strength 
and  safety,"  the  Wilmot  proviso,  saying  on 
August  5:  "Our  opinion  of  the  propriety  and 
legality  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  has  not 
159 


Horace  Greeley 


changed  one  hair,  but  the  necessity  for  it  is 
now  far  less  than  it  has  been.  Give  us  Cali 
fornia  admitted,  and  territorial  governments 
for  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  and  we  will  forego 
the  Wilmot  proviso,  though  we  think  we  ought 
to  have  this  and  all  the  others  besides." 

Even  the  "omnibus  bill"  was  a  failure, 
and  it  seemed  probable  that  no  legislation  on 
the  subject  would  be  secured.  Then  came  the 
elevation  of  Fillmore  to  the  presidency 
through  Taylor's  death,  and  after  that  Con 
gress  passed  four  separate  bills,  which  Fill- 
more  signed.  The  first  of  these  admitted 
California  as  a  free  State.  The  second  ad 
justed  the  Texas  boundary,  giving  the  State 
$10,000,000  as  an  indemnity,  and  also  organ 
ized  New  Mexico  as  a  Territory,  the  State  or 
States  formed  from  which  should  be  admit 
ted  "with  or  without  slavery,  as  their  consti 
tutions  may  prescribe."  The  third  bill 
amended  the  fugitive  slave  law  of  1793  by 
providing  new  machinery  for  the  capture  of 
such  slaves,  and  imposing  a  fine  not  exceed 
ing  $1,000  and  imprisonment  for  not  more 
than  six  months  on  any  one  who  obstructed 
the  enforcement  of  the  law,  or  concealed  a 
fugitive.  A  fourth  bill  forbade  the  traffic  in 
slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

The  Tribune  realized  at  once  that  the 
160 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

slave  power  had  won  in  this  great  contest, 
and  it  refused  to  accept  the  result  as  a  Whig 
victory.  When,  in  October,  it  was  proposed 
to  hold  in  New  York  city  a  great  meeting  to 
indorse  the  peace  measures,  the  Tribune 
said:  " Forty  Abolition  meetings  will  not  ad 
vance  the  antislavery  sentiment  so  much  as 
one  grand  mercantile  city  meeting  to  put 
down  Free-soilism  and  make  a  finish  of  anti- 
slavery  excitement."  Greeley  was  not  even 
to  be  won  over  by  an  appeal  to  the  peril  there 
might  be  to  the  tariff  in  Whig  discord,  and, 
replying  to  an  article  in  the  Richmond  (Va.) 
Whig,  he  said :  "  If  it  [the  Tribune]  can  only 
procure  protection  to  the  labor  of  New  York 
by  conspiring  to  rob  the  laborers  of  Virginia 
of  their  just  earnings,  it  will  spurn  the  bar 
gain." 

All  that  there  was  in  the  nature  of  pacify 
ing  compromise  in  the  act  of  1850  was  over 
shadowed  by  the  practical  effect  of  the  at 
tempts  to  enforce  the  new  fugitive  slave  law. 
Greeley  early  declared  that  the  existence  of 
this  law  might  be  "endured  "  so  long  as  it 
was  rarely  enforced,  "but  no  longer,"  and  he 
openly  expressed  his  sympathy  with  every 
effort  made  in  the  North  to  obstruct  it. 
When  a  "Union  and  Safety  Committee,"  rep 
resenting  "commercial  interests "  in  New 
™  161 


Horace  Greeley 

York  city,  in  September,  1851,  circulated  a 
petition  declaring  that  a  further  agitation  of 
the  slavery  question  would  be  "fraught  with 
incalculable  danger  to  our  Union,"  and  ur 
ging  that  no  one  should  vote  for  a  Congres 
sional  candidate  opposed  to  the  new  peace 
measures,  the  Tribune  vigorously  opposed 
this  pledge,  and  on  November  6  it  thus  re 
stated  its  position: 

"For  our  own  part,  living  within  the  very 
shadow  of  the  temple  wherein  the  god  Cotton 
is  worshiped,  we  defy  the  priests  who  offi 
ciate  at  the  altar  to  do  their  worst.  We  tell 
them  that  from  the  depths  of  our  soul  we 
hate  and  abhor  human  slavery,  and  every  in 
stitution,  law,  or  usage  whereby  the  poor  and 
feeble  are  racked  and  lashed  to  make  them 
minister  to  the  pomp  and  luxury  of  the 
wealthy  and  powerful.  We  tell  them  that  we 
feel  that  the  soil  we  tread  is  desecrated,  the 
air  we  breathe  polluted,  by  the  inhuman 
slave-hunts  which  an  ill-considered  compact, 
made  when  our  fathers  were  themselves  vir 
tually  slaveholders,  compels  us  not  to  oppose 
by  any  other  than  a  moral  resistance.  We  tell 
them  that  we  will  not  be  instrumental  in  for 
cing  back  into  bondage  those  who  have  es 
caped  therefrom;  but,  while  we  would  dis 
suade  all  from  violent  resistance  to  any  legal 
162 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

mandate,  we  will  ourselves  cheerfully  go  to 
prison,  or  bear  any  penalty  which  our  refusal 
may  invoke,  rather  than  aid  to  consign  an 
innocent  fellow  being  to  perpetual  bondage." 

The  Tribune  favored  the  nomination  of 
General  Scott  for  President  in  1852,  but  said 
of  the  declaration  of  the  Whig  platform  in 
favor  of  the  compromise  of  1850,  and  depre 
cating  further  agitation  of  the  slave  question, 
"If  there  be  any  five  thousand  Whigs  whose 
voting  for  the  Whig  candidate  depends  on 
our  agreeing  not  to  speak  in  reprehension  of 
slavery,  or  our  agreeing  to  give  any  '  aid  and 
comfort '  to  the  hunting  and  catching  of  fugi 
tive  slaves,  they  may  as  well  take  up  their 
beds  and  walk,  for  we  mean  to  stay  in  the 
Whig  party,  and  not  to  keep  silence  about 
slavery,  nor  'acquiesce'  in  fugitive-slave 
hunting.  So  if  this  is  to  drive  Whigs  into 
the  Loco-f oco  camp,  they  may  as  well  go  now 
as  any  time." 

Of  the  result  of  this  campaign  Greeley 
said  in  his  autobiography,  "The  Whig  party 
had  been  often  beaten  before;  this  defeat 
proved  it  practically  defunct,  and  in  an  ad 
vanced  stage  of  decomposition." 

On  January  4,  1854,  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
reported  to  the  Senate,  with  amendments,  a 
bill  introduced  by  Dodge,  of  Iowa,  to  organ- 
163 


Horace  Greeley 


ize  the  Territory  of  Nebraska.  This  was  the 
practical  beginning  of  the  contest  known  in 
our  history  as  the  Kansas-Nebraska  struggle. 
Douglas's  report  set  forth  that  the  compro 
mise  measures  of  1850  rested  on  the  principle 
that  all  questions  pertaining  to  slavery  in  the 
Territories,  and  the  States  formed  from 
them,  were  to  be  decided  by  the  people  there 
of,  and  his  bill  provided  that  Nebraska,  when 
admitted,  should  be  received  with  or  without 
slavery,  as  its  constitution  should  provide. 

The  Tribune  attacked  this  position  at 
once,  spoke  of  Douglas  as  "down  on  his  mar 
row-bones  at  the  feet  of  slavery,"  and  added: 

"Although  antislavery  is  weak  in  political 
circles,  it  was  never  stronger  with  the  masses 
of  the  people.  The  great  heart  of  the  country 
is  sound.  Thousands  and  millions  of  true 
men  all  over  the  North  wait  but  the  occasion 
for  a  practical  demonstration  of  their  power, 
to  show  how  firm  is  their  attachment  to  the 
principle  of  freedom,  and  how  deeply  they 
scorn  the  shallow  fools  who  have  the  imperti 
nence  to  talk  about '  crushing  out '  those  prin 
ciples." 

The  Tribune  fought  the  proposed  legisla 
tion  step  by  step,  but  in  vain,  and  when  the 
bill  passed  the  House  (after  midnight  on  May 
23),  it  said  "The  revolution  is  accomplished, 
164 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

and  slavery  is  king.  How  long  shall  this 
monarch  reign?  This  is  now  the  question 
for  the  Northern  people  to  answer.  .  .  .  Con 
spiracy  has  done  its  worst.  Treason  has  done 
its  worst.  Who  comes  to  the  rescue?  .  .  . 
Perhaps  some  such  gigantic  outrage  upon  the 
living  sentiment  of  the  North  as  the  defeat 
of  the  Missouri  compromise  was  necessary  to 
arouse  and  consolidate  the  hosts  of  freedom 
in  the  free  States." 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  question  created  a 
new  alinement  of  parties.  Greeley  credited 
Douglas  and  Pierce  with  having  made  more 
Abolitionists  in  three  months  than  Garrison 
and  Phillips  could  have  made  in  fifty  years. 
The  purpose  of  the  slave  power  was  rendered 
clearer,  and  the  Northern  determination  to 
resist  it  was  strengthened.  The  Tribune's 
files  are  a  sufficient  demonstration  of  the  part 
it  took  in  the  formation  of  the  new  Northern 
sentiment,  and  Greeley's  willingness  to  ac 
cept  the  compromise  measures  when  they 
were  in  process  of  formation  increased  his 
authority  when  he  interpreted  the  actual  re 
sult.  Now  Whigs  like  Greeley  and  Seward, 
Free-soilers  like  Sumner  and  Chase,  Aboli 
tionists  like  Owen  Love  joy  and  Giddings,  and 
Democrats  like  Trumbull  and  Blair  saw  a 
common  ground  on  which  they  could  fight 
165 


Horace  Greeley 

under  the  same  banner;  and  on  this  ground 
the  foundation  of  the  new  Republican  party 
was  laid  in  1854.  Henry  Wilson  says : 

"At  the  outset,  Mr.  Greeley  was  hopeless, 
and  seemed  disinclined  to  enter  upon  the  con 
test.  So  often  defeated  by  Northern  defec 
tion  therein,  he  distrusted  Congress,  nor  had 
he  faith  that  the  people  would  reverse  the  ver 
dict  of  their  representatives.  He  told  his  as 
sociates  that  he  would  not  restrain  them,  but, 
as  for  himself,  he  had  no  heart  for  the  strife. 
But  they  were  more  hopeful.  .  .  .  Even  Mr. 
Greeley  himself  became  inspired  by  the  grow 
ing  enthusiasm,  and  some  of  the  most  trench 
ant  articles  were  from  his  practised  and  pow 
erful  pen." l 

Greeley  was  in  Washington  during  the 
contest  which,  in  1855-'56,  resulted  finally  in 
the  election  of  N.  P.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts, 
as  Speaker  of  the  House.  While  the  outcome 
was  uncertain,  Albert  Rust,  of  Arkansas,  in 
troduced  a  resolution  declaring  it  the  senti 
ment  of  the  House  that  Banks  (who  lacked 
only  three  or  four  votes  of  election)  and  the 
three  other  leading  candidates  should  forbid 
the  use  of  their  names  any  longer.  Greeley 
considered  this  attempt  to  dictate  to  the 

1  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slare  Power,  ii,  p.  407. 

166 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

House  a  gross  outrage,  and  called  it,  in  his 
correspondence  with  the  Tribune,  "a  more 
discreditable  proposition  than  I  had  ever 
known  gravely  submitted  to  a  legislative 
body."  Thereupon  Rust,  on  January  23, 
struck  Greeley  several  blows  with  his  fist  as 
the  editor  was  walking  through  the  Capitol 
grounds,  and  repeated  the  assault  when  Gree 
ley  came  up  with  him  on  his  way  to  his  hotel, 
breaking  a  cane  over  his  critic's  arm  and  in 
flicting  on  him  a  severe  bruise.  Greeley  re 
fused  to  prosecute  his  assailant,  saying  that 
he  "did  not  choose  to  be  beaten  for  money," 
and  that  he  did  not  think  an  antislavery  ed 
itor  could  get  justice  in  a  Washington  court. 

It  was  in  1856  also  that  the  Tribune  was 
indicted  in  Harrison  County,  Virginia,  on  a 
charge  of  publishing  in  New  York,  and  cir 
culating  in  Virginia,  a  newspaper  which  in 
cited  negroes  to  insurrection,  and  "inculcated 
resistance  to  the  rights  of  property  of  mas 
ters  in  their  slaves  " ;  and  its  agent  there  was 
indicted  for  getting  up  a  club  of  the  paper. 
Neither  indictment  ever  came  to  trial. 

After  the  nomination  of  Fremont  for 
President,  in  1856,  the  Tribune  conceded  that 
the  odds  were  greatly  in  favor  of  the  Demo 
crats,  and  in  announcing  his  defeat  it  said, 
"We  have  lost  a  battle.  The  Bunker  Hill  of 
167 


Horace  Greeley 

the  new  struggle  for  freedom  is  past;  the 
Saratoga  and  Yorktown  are  yet  to  be 
achieved." 

The  great  political  events  between  the 
presidential  years  1856  and  1860  were  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  in  1857,  allowing  slave 
holders  to  take  their  slaves  into  the  Territo 
ries;  the  Lecompton  (Kan.)  contest  in  Con 
gress,  and  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debate  in 

1858,  and  John  Brown's  raid  in  Virginia  in 

1859.  The  Tribune  held  that  Taney's  deci 
sion  was  "entitled  to  just  so  much  moral 
weight  as  would  be  the  judgment  of  a  major 
ity  of  those  congregated  in  any  Washington 
bar-room  " ;  it  fought  for  free  Kansas,  and 
of  the  John  Brown  incident  it  said: 

"There  will  be  enough  to  heap  execration 
on  the  memory  of  these  mistaken  men.  We 
leave  this  work  to  the  fit  hands  and  tongues 
of  those  who  regard  the  fundamental  axioms 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  '  glit 
tering  generalities.'  Believing  that  the  way 
to  universal  emancipation  lies  not  through 
insurrection,  civil  war,  and  bloodshed,  but 
through  peace,  discussion,  and  the  quiet  dif 
fusion  of  sentiments  of  humanity  and  justice, 
we  deeply  regret  this  outbreak.  But,  remem 
bering  that,  if  their  fault  was  grievous,  griev 
ously  have  they  answered  it,  we  will  not 
168 


The  Antislavery  Contest 

by  one  reproachful  word  disturb  the  bloody 
shrouds  wherein  John  Brown  and  his  com 
patriots  are  sleeping.  They  dared  and  died 
for  what  they  felt  to  be  the  right,  though  in 
a  manner  which  seems  to  us  fatally  wrong. 
Let  their  epitaphs  remain  unwritten  until  the 
not  distant  day  when  no  slave  shall  clank  his 
chains  in  the  shades  of  Monticello  or  by  the 
groves  of  Mt.  Vernon." 


169 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DURING  THE   CIVIL  WAR 

ONE  who  has  followed  Greeley's  course  in 
opposition  to  the  slave  power  after  1850 
might  expect  to  find  him  an  aggressive  leader 
in  the  contest  when  his  desire  to  see  in  the 
presidential  chair  a  resident  of  a  free  State 
elected  by  Free-soilers  was  gratified,  and 
when  that  decision  of  the  people  was  met  by 
threats  of  breaking  up  the  Union.  But  Gree- 
ley  was,  in  fact,  neither  far-seeing  in  things 
political  nor  aggressive  in  the  face  of  actual 
danger,  and  when  aggressiveness  counted 
most.  He  lacked  that  more  exacting  courage 
required  "to  confront  a  great  enemy  in  poli 
tics  "  for  which  he  had  expressed  admiration 
while  the  Compromise  of  1850  was  pending. 
Combined  with  this  was  distrust  of  Lincoln 
and  his  official  advisers,  a  constant  inclina 
tion  during  the  war  to  obtrude  his  advice 
and  his  services  where  they  could  only  cause 
annoyance  and  do  harm,  and  a  weakness  of 
judgment  in  essential  matters — all  of  which 
170 


During  the  Civil  War 

seemed  to  justify  Garrison  in  characterizing 
him  as  "the  worst  of  all  counselors,  the  most 
unsteady  of  all  leaders,  the  most  pliant  of 
all  compromisers  in  times  of  great  public 
emergency." 

To  understand  clearly  Greeley's  conduct 
during  Lincoln's  administration  it  is  neces 
sary  to  retrace  our  steps  in  presenting  the 
narrative  of  his  career. 

What  might  be  called  the  foundation  prin 
ciple  of  Greeley's  early  idea  of  journalism 
was  independence  of  thought,  and  in  the  Log 
Cabin  he  laid  down  this  very  correct  view  of 
editorial  office-holding : 

"If  the  administration  has  resolved  that 
no  individual  shall  be  appointed  to  any  office 
as  a  reward  for  any  real  or  imaginary  service 
to  the  Whig  cause  as  a  partizan  editor,  and 
that  the  holding  of  office  under  the  Federal 
Government  and  the  editing  of  a  partizan 
newspaper  at  the  same  time  are  incompatible, 
we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  it  has  made  a 
wise  and  beneficent  decision." 

By  1849  he  had  so  far  modified  this  view 
that  he  wrote  (May  5) :  "We  trust  editors 
will  not  come  to  regard  office  as  a  goal  and 
recompense  for  their  labors,  but  that  they 
will  not,  on  the  other  hand,  be  deemed  ineli 
gible  by  reason  of  their  calling."  Then  he 
171 


Horace  Greeley 


became  ambitious  to  hold  an  office  himself. 
To  one  who  realizes  the  power  that  he  pos 
sessed  as  an  editor,  it  may  seem  strange  that 
he  should  be  willing  to  devote  to  public  af 
fairs  any  of  the  time  that  his  editorial  duties 
demanded,  or  that  he  should  come  to  believe 
that  a  public  office  would  add  to  his  popular 
repute.  But  most  of  the  big  men  in  politics 
in  those  days  did  receive  political  rewards. 
Weed,  it  is  true,  was  content  to  pull  the  wires 
— accepting  only  the  position  of  State  Print 
er;  but  Seward  had  been  Governor  and  was 
a  United  States  Senator ;  Greeley  had  helped 
elect  scores  of  men  to  Congress  and  to  the 
Legislature,  and  in  the  opposition  party  in 
his  own  State  he  had  seen  Van  Buren,  Marcy, 
and  Silas  Wright  honored  with  one  important 
office  after  another.  So  he  came  to  feel  that 
he  was  left  neglected  in  his  editorial  room, 
and  in  1854  he  approached  Weed  with  the 
query  whether  "the  time  and  circumstances  " 
were  not  favorable  for  his  nomination  for 
Governor.  The  Tribune  had  for  some  years 
been  advocating  the  adoption  of  the  Maine 
prohibition  law  in  New  York  State,1  and 

1  As  a  city  excise  measure  Greeley  proposed  in  1844  to 
abolish  all  license  fees,  and  assess  on  the  sellers  of  liquor,  retail 
and  wholesale,  the  carefully  ascertained  cost  of  the  pauperism 
caused  by  rum. 

172 


During  the  Civil  War 

Greeley  was  then  classed  among  the  ultra- 
prohibitionists.  Weed's  reply  was  that,  al 
though  he  was  ready  to  admit  that  Greeley 
in  the  Tribune  had  educated  the  people  up 
to  the  acceptance  of  his  own  temperance 
views  for  the  State,  the  Weed  men  could  not 
control  the  nomination,  and  that,  while  Gree 
ley  had  shaken  the  temperance  bush,  Myron 
H.  Clark  was  the  man  who  would  catch  the 
bird.  Greeley  acquiesced  in  this  opinion,  but 
he  soon  after  went  to  Albany  and  asked  Weed 
if  there  was  any  objection  to  his  running  for 
Lieutenant-Governor.  This  request  was  a 
fair  illustration  of  Greeley's  ignorance  of 
the  practical  side  of  politics,  and  Weed  was 
obliged  to  point  out  to  him  how  impolitic  it 
would  be  to  make  up  a  ticket  with  two  ultra- 
temperance  men  at  its  head.  Again  Greeley 
acquiesced,  but  when  the  convention  resulted 
in  the  nomination  of  his  rival,  Henry  J.  Ray 
mond,  for  Lieutenant-Governor,  he  was  so  ex 
asperated  that  he  held  Weed  responsible  for 
Raymond's  nomination,  and  accused  Weed  of 
concealing  his  intention  in  his  conversation 
with  him.1 

Late  in  that  campaign  Greeley  wrote  to 
Seward  that  he  wanted  "an  earnest  talk" 

1  Weed's  Autobiography,  ii,  p.  227. 

173 


Horace  Greeley 


with  him  as  soon  as  the  election  was  over, 
adding:  "I  have  held  in  as  long  as  I  can,  or 
shall  have  by  that  time.  ...  I  have  tried  to 
talk  to  Weed,  but  with  only  partial  success. 
Weed  likes  me  and  always  did — I  don't  think 
he  ever  had  a  dog  about  his  house  he  likes 
better — but  he  thinks  I  know  nothing  about 
politics.  If  there  are  any  plans  for  the  fu 
ture  I  want  to  know  what  they  are,  and  if 
there  are  none,  I  want  to  know  that  fact,  and 
I  will  try  to  form  a  plan  of  some  sort  my 
self."  In  other  words,  Greeley  did  not  pro 
pose  to  be  left  out  of  the  future  Whig  coun 
cils.  "  No  other  journal  had  done  so  much  as 
the  Tribune,"  says  Seward's  biographer,  "to 
make  Seward  the  idol  of  the  antislavery  peo 
ple  of  various  degrees."  If  there  was  a  sus 
picion  of  a  breach  of  trust  in  the  Seward- 
Greeley-Weed  firm,  Greeley  would  naturally 
address  any  complaint  to  Seward. 

Stung  by  the  outcome  of  the  election,  in 
which  the  ticket  bearing  Raymond's  name  was 
successful,  Greeley,  without  seeking  an  in 
terview  with  Seward,  addressed  to  him  a 
letter  that  has  become  famous.  It  was  dated 
November  11,  1854,  and  it  opened  with  the 
following  words:  "Governor  Seward — The 
election  is  over,  and  its  result  sufficiently  as 
certained.  It  seems  to  me  a  fitting  time  to 
174 


During  the  Civil  War 

announce  to  you  the  dissolution  of  the  polit 
ical  firm  of  Seward,  Weed,  and  Greeley,  by 
the  withdrawal  of  the  junior  partner,  said 
withdrawal  to  take  effect  on  the  morning 
after  the  first  Tuesday  in  February  next " 
(when  Seward  would  be  elected  United 
States  Senator).  The  letter,  which  was  a 
long  one,  went  over  Greeley's  first  acquaint 
ance  with  Weed,  set  forth  his  editorial  la 
bors  up  to  the  time  of  Harrison's  election, 
and  said:  "Now  came  the  great  scramble  of 
the  swell  mob  of  coon  minstrels  and  cider 
suckers  at  Washington — I  not  being  counted 
in.  Several  regiments  of  them  went  on  from 
this  city,  but  no  one  of  the  whole  crowd, 
though  I  say  it  who  should  not,  had  done  so 
much  toward  General  Harrison's  nomination 
as  yours  respectfully.  I  asked  nothing,  ex 
pected  nothing;  but  you,  Governor  Seward, 
ought  to  have  asked  that  I  be  Postmaster  of 
New  York.  Your  asking  would  have  been  in 
vain;  but  it  would  have  been  an  act  of  grace 
neither  wasted  nor  undeserved.  .  .  .  When 
the  Whig  party,  under  your  rule,  had  offices 
to  give,  my  name  was  never  thought  of;  but 
when,  in  1842-'43,  we  were  hopelessly  out  of 
power,  I  was  honored  with  the  party  nomina 
tion  for  State  Printer.  When  we  came  again 
to  have  a  State  Printer  to  elect  as  well  as 
175 


Horace  Greeley 

nominate,  the  place  went  to  Weed,  as  it 
ought.  ...  If  a  new  office  had  not  been  cre 
ated  on  purpose  to  give  its  valuable  patron 
age  to  H.  J.  Raymond  and  enable  St.  John 
to  show  forth  his  Times  as  the  organ  of  the 
Whig  State  administration,  I  should  have 
been  still  more  grateful." 

Reviewing  the  recent  campaign,  he  contra 
dicted  what  Weed  in  his  later  autobiography 
said  about  seeking  the  nomination  for  Gov 
ernor,  saying  that,  when  Weed  called  on  him 
to  state  why  he  could  not  support  him  for 
that  nomination,  "I  [Greeley]  had  never 
asked  nor  counted  on  his  support."  He 
"should  have  hated  to  serve  as  Lieutenant- 
Governor,"  but  would  have  "gloried  in  run 
ning  "  so  as  to  have  had  all  his  enemies  upon 
him  at  once.  But  the  nomination  was  given 
to  Raymond,  and  he  [Greeley]  made  the 
fight.  The  letter  closed  by  saying  that  the 
writer  trusted  that  they  should  never  be 
found  in  opposition;  "all  I  ask  is  that  we 
shall  be  counted  even  on  the  morning  after 
the  first  Tuesday  in  February,  as  aforesaid, 
and  that  I  may  thereafter  take  such  course 
as  seems  best  without  reference  to  the  past." 

Seward  did  not  even  inform  Weed  of  the 
contents  of  this  letter,  and  Weed  was  igno 
rant  of  them  until  its  publication,  after  Ray- 
*  176 


During  the  Civil  War 

mond,  in  a  letter  in  the  Times  explaining 
Seward' s  defeat  at  Chicago  in  1860,  had  hint 
ed  of  it  as  supplying  the  motive  for  Greeley's 
opposition  to  Seward  there.  What  Weed 
knew  of  the  incident  at  the  time  from  Seward 
was  contained  in  the  following  letter : 

"Has  Greeley  written  to  yon,  or  do  you 
see  him  nowadays?  Just  before  the  election 
he  wrote  me  an  abrupt  letter.  I  did  not  think 
it  wise  to  trouble  you  about  it.  Then,  when 
he  thought  all  was  gone  through  your  blun 
ders  and  mine,  he  came  out  in  the  paper  and 
said  as  much  in  a  chafed  spirit.  To-day  I 
have  a  long  letter  from  him,  full  of  sharp, 
pricking  thorns.  I  judge,  as  we  might  well 
know,  from  his,  at  bottom,  nobleness  of  dis 
position,  that  he  has  no  idea  of  saying  or 
doing  anything  wrong  or  unkind;  but  it  is 
sad  to  see  him  so  unhappy.  Will  there  be  a 
vacancy  in  the  Board  of  Regents  this  winter? 
Could  one  be  made  at  the  close  of  the  session? 
Could  he  have  it?  Raymond's  nomination 
and  election  is  hard  for  him  to  bear.  I  think 
this  is  a  good  letter  to  burn.  I  wish  I  could 
do  Greeley  so  great  a  kindness  as  to  burn 
his." 

From  the  date  of  his  letter  to  Seward, 
Greeley  showed  a  determination  to  give  his 

own    judgment    free    rein,     and,     perhaps 
13  177 


Horace  Greeley 


through  lack  of  influences  that  had  previous 
ly  restrained  him,  his  course  became  more 
and  more  erratic.  "We  find  an  early  illustra 
tion  of  this  in  1858 — the  year  of  the  famous 
Lincoln-Douglas  debate  in  Illinois — when  he 
favored  the  acceptance  of  Douglas  as  the  Re 
publican  candidate  for  United  States  Sena 
tor,  and  in  a  letter  to  a  Chicago  editor  spoke 
of  the  failure  to  conciliate  Douglas  as  spurn 
ing  and  insulting  the  Republicans  of  other 
States,  and  added:  "If  Lincoln  would  fight  up 
to  the  work  also,  you  might  get  through.  .  .  . 
You  have  got  your  elephant — you  would  have 
him — now  shoulder  him.  He  is  not  so  heavy 
after  all."  His  early  lack  of  faith  in  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Republican  party  was  not  over 
come,  and  in  writing  to  GL  E.  Baker  on  April 
28,  1859,  he  said: 

"I  lack  faith  that  the  antislavery  men  of 
this  country  have  either  the  numbers  or  the 
sagacity  required  to  make  a  President.  I  do 
not  believe  there  are  a  hundred  thousand 
earnest  antislaverymen  in  this  State,  or  a 
million  in  the  Union.  .  .  .  Slavery  has  not 
another  body  of  servitors  half  so  useful  and 
efficient  as  the  most  rabid  Abolitionists.  .  .  . 
I  hope  Seward  or  Chase  will  be  nominated 
on  the  platform  of  1856,  and  then  I  will  go 
to  work  for  him  with  a  will,  but  with  perfect 
178 


During  the  Civil  War 

certainty  that  we  are  to  be  horribly  beaten. 
I  only  want  to  be  in  such  a  shape  that,  when 
the  thing  is  over,  I  can  say,  '  I  told  you  so.' 
I  don't  believe  the  time  ever  has  been  (or 
soon  will  be)  when,  on  a  square  issue,  the  Re- 
publicans  could  or  can  poll  one  hundred  elec 
toral  votes.  But  let  her  drive."  1 

Greeley  attended  the  National  Republican 
Convention  of  1860  not  as  a  delegate  from 
his  own  State,  but  as  the  representative  of  an 
Oregon  district  that  had  asked  him  to  serve. 
He  went  to  Chicago  declaring  that  his  can 
didate  was  Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri,  a  Vir 
ginian  by  birth,  and  a  lifelong  slaveholder! 
"He  was  thoroughly  conservative,"  Greeley 
afterward  explained,  "and  so  held  fast  to  the 
doctrine  of  our  revolutionary  sages,  that 
slavery  was  an  evil  to  be  restricted,  not  a 
good  to  be  diffused.  This  conviction  made 
him  essentially  a  Republican;  while  I  be 
lieved  that  he  could  poll  votes  in  every  slave 
State,  and  if  elected,  rally  all  that  was  left 
of  the  Whig  party  therein  to  resist  secession 
and  rebellion."  In  a  statement  published 
soon  after  the  nomination  of  Lincoln,  Gree 
ley  said  that  he  had  considered  the  nomina 
tion  of  Seward  "unadvisable  and  unsafe," 

1  Weed's  Autobiography,  ii,  p.  255. 

179 


Horace  Greeley 

but  that  Seward's  defeat  was  due  to  the 
viction  of  the  delegates  from  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  and  Indiana  that  he  could  not 
carry  those  States.  Thereupon  Henry  J. 
Eaymond  wrote  from  Seward's  home  a  letter 
to  the  New  York  Times  in  which  he  gave  a 
different  account  of  Greeley's  action  at  the 
convention.  The  letter  was  a  very  bitter  one, 
as  a  few  extracts  from  it  will  show: 

"The  main  work  of  the  Chicago  conven 
tion  was  the  defeat  of  Governor  Seward,  .  .  . 
and  in  that  endeavor  Mr.  Greeley  labored 
harder  and  did  tenfold  more  than  the  whole 
family  of  Blairs,  together  with  all  the  guber 
natorial  candidates  to  whom  he  modestly 
hands  over  the  honors  of  the  effective  cam 
paign.  He  had  special  qualifications  as  well 
as  a  special  love  for  the  task,  to  which  none 
of  the  others  could  lay  any  claim.  For  twen 
ty  years  he  had  been  sustaining  the  political 
principles  and  vindicating  the  political  con 
duct  of  Mr.  Seward  through  the  columns  of 
the  most  influential  political  newspaper  in  the 
country.  ...  He  had  gone  far  beyond  him 
in  expressions  of  hostility  to  slavery,  in  pal 
liation  of  armed  attempts  for  its  overthrow, 
and  in  assaults  upon  that  clause  of  the  Con 
stitution  which  requires  the  surrender  of  the 
fugitive  slaves;  and  he  was  known  to  have 
180 


THE  UNION  LEAGUE  CLUB, 


MADISON    AVENUE,   corner   of  Twenty-sixth    Street, 


NEW-  YORK,  __/?£SCs-         ......  187 


>^ 


n, — q> 


c0**t 

^2?  X^*-A 


Specimen  of  Greeley's  handwriting. 


During  the  Civil  War 

been  for  more  than  twenty  years  his  personal 
friend  and  political  supporter.  .  .  .  Mr.  Gree- 
ley  was  in  Chicago  several  days  before  the 
meeting  of  the  convention,  and  he  devoted 
every  hour  of  the  interval  to  the  most  steady 
and  relentless  prosecution  of  the  main  busi 
ness  which  took  him  hither — the  defeat  of 
Governor  Seward.  He  labored  personally 
with  the  delegates  as  they  arrived,  commend 
ing  himself  always  to  their  confidence  by  pro 
fessions  of  regard  and  the  most  zealous 
friendship  for  Governor  Seward,  but  pre 
senting  defeat  even  in  New  York  as  the  in 
evitable  result  of  his  nomination.  .  .  .  While 
the  contents  of  Greeley's  letter  of  November 
11,  1854,  to  Seward  were  known  to  some  of 
Seward' s  supporters  who  were  working  at 
Chicago,  no  use  was  made  of  this  knowledge 
in  quarters  where  it  would  have  disarmed  the 
deadly  effect  of  his  pretended  friendship  for 
the  man  upon  whom  he  was  thus  deliberately 
wreaking  the  long-hoarded  revenge  of  a  dis 
appointed  office-seeker.  He  was  still  allowed 
to  represent  to  the  delegations  from  Ver 
mont,  New  Hampshire,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
other  States  known  to  be  in  favor  of  Gov 
ernor  Seward' s  nomination,  that,  while  he 
desired  it  upon  the  strongest  grounds  of 
personal  and  political  friendship,  he  be- 
181 


Horace  Greeley 


lieved  it  would  be  fatal  to  the  success  of  the 


cause." 


This  was  the  first  public  reference  that  had 
been  made  to  Greeley's  letter  to  Seward. 
Greeley  now  demanded  its  publication,  and 
this  followed,  and  the  actual  rupture  of  the 
political  firm  then  occurred.  Weed  reviewed 
the  letter  in  the  Albany  Evening  Journal 
with  this  summing  up : 

"In  conclusion,  we  can  not  withhold  an  ex 
pression  of  sincere  regret  that  this  letter  has 
been  called  out.  Having  remained  six  years 
in  'blissful  ignorance'  of  its  contents,  we 
should  much  prefer  to  have  ever  remained  so. 
It  jars  harshly  upon  cherished  memories.  It 
destroys  ideals  of  disinterestedness  and  gen 
erosity  which  relieve  political  life  from  so 
much  that  is  selfish,  sordid,  and  rapacious." 

When,  in  1861,  the  nomination  for  United 
States  Senator  at  Albany  lay  between  Gree 
ley  and  William  M.  Evarts,  and  Greeley  was 
gaining  in  the  caucus  balloting,  Weed  had 
the  name  of  Ira  Harris  presented,  and  so 
snatched  the  nomination  from  his  old  friend. 
When,  in  1869,  Greeley  accepted  the  nomina 
tion  for  State  Comptroller,  after  three  can 
didates  on  the  ticket  had  declined  their  nomi 
nations,  Weed  refused  to  support  him,  and 
wrote  a  letter  in  which  he  analyzed  Greeley's 
182 


During  the  Civil  War 

course  in  later  years,  and  declared  that  it 
was  "preposterous  "  to  suppose  that  the  ed 
itor  of  a  daily  journal  in  New  York  could  so 
divide  his  time  as  to  discharge  also  the  du 
ties  of  Comptroller.  The  vote  at  the  polls 
stood:  Greeley,  307,688;  Allen,  SSO^Tl.1 

Greeley  met  with  denials  the  charges  that 
his  opposition  to  Seward's  nomination  was 
due  to  any  personal  hostility,  saying  in  reply 
to  Weed's  statement:  "The  most  careful 
scavenger  of  private  letters  or  the  most 
sneaking  eavesdropper  that  ever  listened  to 
private  conversation,  can  not  allege  a  single 
reason  for  any  personal  hostility  on  my  part 
against  Mr.  Seward.  I  have  never  received 
from  him  anything  but  exceeding  kindness 
and  courtesy.  He  has  done  me  favors  (not 
of  a  political  nature)  in  a  manner  which  made 
them  still  more  obliging ;  and  I  should  regard 
the  loss  of  his  friendship  as  a  very  serious 
loss.  Notwithstanding  this,  I  could  not  sup 
port  him  for  President.  I  like  Mr.  Seward 
personally,  but  I  love  the  party  and  its  prin 
ciples  more." 

1  Greeley  was  a  member  of  the  State  Constitutional  Con 
vention  in  1867.  In  1870  he  ran  for  Congress  against  S.  S.  Cox, 
and  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  1,025  votes,  the  district  giv 
ing  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Governor  a  majority  of  1,745 
at  the  same  election. 

183 


Horace  Greeley 


The  Albany  Evening  Journal  charged 
that  Seward's  appointment  by  Lincoln  as 
Secretary  of  State  was  made  "against  the 
persistent  protestations  of  those  who  con 
curred  with  the  Tribune."  The  Tribune  re 
plied  that  it  "promptly  and  heartily  ap 
proved"  of  Seward's  selection,  and  let  the 
new  President  know  that  its  editor  would  not 
accept  the  Postmaster-Generalship.1 

The  announcement  of  Lincoln's  election 
was  followed  by  instant  threats  of  secession 
on  the  part  of  the  South,  and  by  demands  for 
concessions  to  the  slave  power  by  many  in 
terests — business  and  political — in  the  North. 
Greeley  met  this  situation  by  taking  the 
ground,  in  the  Tribune  of  December  17,  1860, 
that,  if  the  right  of  the  colonists  to  rebel 
against  Great  Britain  was  justified  by  the 
"consent  of  the  governed  "  clause  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence,  that  clause  would 
justify  "the  secession  of  five  million  of 
Southrons  from  the  Federal  Union  in  1861." 
Jefferson's  principle  might  be  "pushed  to  ex 
treme  and  baleful  consequences  " ;  but,  while 
he  would  not  uphold  the  secession  of  Gov 
ernor's  Island  from  New  York,  if  seven  or 

1  "  There  was  no  moment  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  rule  when  any 
place  in  his  gift  would  have  been  accepted  by  Mr,  Greeley." — 
Tribune,  March  16, 1872. 

184 


During  the  Civil  War 

eight  contiguous  States  should  secede  from 
the  Union  he  would  not  think  it  right  to 
"  stand  up  for  coercion."  If  Mayor  Fernando 
Wood  had  not  had  free  trade  in  view,  Greeley 
might  have  joined  him  in  his  suggestion  to  the 
Common  Council  of  New  York  city  on  Jan 
uary  6,  1861,  that,  if  the  Union,  which,  he 
held,  could  not  be  constitutionally  kept  to 
gether  by  force,  was  dissolved,  the  city  should 
separate  from  the  State  and  establish  a 
"  Free  City,"  which  would  have  "  cheap  goods 
nearly  free  from  duty."  A  week  later  he 
declared  that,  if  any  six  or  more  of  the  cotton 
States  wanted  to  secede,  "we  will  do  our  best 
to  help  them  out,  not  that  we  want  them  to 
go,  but  that  we  loathe  the  idea  of  compelling 
them  to  stay."  The  abstract  right  of  a  State 
to  secede,  under  the  Constitution,  is  upheld 
by  some  Republicans  of  prominence  to-day. 
Without  following  their  argument,  it  may  be 
pointed  out  that  what  Washington  had  in 
view  was  an  "inviolable  Union,"  that  "indis 
soluble  Union  "  which  he  recommended  to  the 
Governors  of  the  States ;  and  that  John  Quin- 
cy  Adams,  in  1828,  declared  that,  while  the 
people  of  a  State,  "by  the  primitive  right  of 
insurrection  against  oppression"  might  de 
clare  their  State  out  of  the  Union,  "they  have 
delegated  no  such  power  to  their  legislators 
185 


Horace  Greeley 

or  their  judges ;  and  if  there  be  such  a  right, 
it  is  the  right  of  an  individual  to  commit  sui 
cide — the  right  of  an  inhabitant  of  a  popu 
lous  city  to  set  fire  to  his  own  dwelling 
house." 

Greeley's  declarations  were  eagerly  ac 
cepted  by  the  most  radical  defenders  of  seces 
sion  in  the  South,  Tombs  using  them  to 
strengthen  his  argument  in  favor  of  the  con 
stitutional  right  of  secession  before  the  Geor 
gia  convention,1  and  they  perplexed  and 
alarmed  the  friends  of  Union  in  the  North. 
Lincoln,  realizing  the  harm  which  an  editor  of 
Greeley's  influence  could  do  to  the  Union 
cause,  wrote  to  him,  cautioning  him  against 
expressing  such  views.  Greeley  in  his  reply 
said  that  one  State  could  no  more  secede  at 

1  In  his  American  Conflict,  written  in  1864,  Greeley  quoted 
his  editorial  of  December  17th  in  full,  and  in  reasserting  the 
possibility  of  justifying  the  free  States  in  consenting  to  a  with 
drawal  of  the  slave  States  from  the  Union,  if  that  was  the 
deliberate  desire  of  the  great  body  of  their  people,  he  added : 
"  And  the  South  had  been  so  systematically,  so  outrageously, 
deluded  by  demagogues  on  both  sides  of  the  slave  line,  with 
regard  to  the  nature  and  special  importance  of  the  Union  to 
the  North — it  being  habitually  represented  as  an  immense  boon 
conferred  on  the  free  States  by  the  slave,  whose  withdrawal 
would  whelm  us  all  in  bankruptcy  and  ruin — that  it  might 
do  something  toward  allaying  the  Southern  inflammation  to 
have  it  distinctly  and  plainly  set  forth  that  the  North  had  no 
desire  to  enforce  upon  the  South  the  maintenance  of  an  ab 
horred,  detested  Union." 

186 


During  the  Civil  War 

its  pleasure  than  one  stave  could  secede  from 
a  cask,  but  that,  if  eight  or  ten  States  wanted 
to  go,  he  would  say,  "There's  the  door,  go." 
Still,  if  the  seceding  States  began  fighting 
while  the  Union  was  not  yet  dissolved,  "I 
guess  they  will  have  to  be  made  to  behave 
themselves."  The  one  thing  he  would  object 
to  would  be  "another  nasty  compromise." 
No  more  arguments  in  favor  of  secession  ap 
peared  in  the  Tribune,  and  in  January,  1861, 
Greeley  wrote,  "I  deny  to  one  State,  or  to  a 
dozen  different  States,  the  right  to  dissolve 
this  Union.  It  can  only  be  legally  dissolved 
as  it  was  formed — by  the  free  consent  of  all 
the  parties  concerned."  Aside  from  its  sup 
port  of  Greeley's  schemes  for  meddling,  and 
its  hostility  to  Lincoln,  the  Tribune  vigorous 
ly  supported  the  Union  cause  during  the  war, 
and  so  concentrated  on  itself  the  hatred  of 
the  Southern  sympathizers  in  New  York  city 
that,  during  the  draft  riots  in  1863,  its  build 
ing  was  attacked  by  the  mob.1 

When  Lincoln's  first  call  for  troops  came, 
and  war  was  actually  begun,  the  nation  had 
had  no  experience  in  warfare  for  fifty  years. 
It  had  to  rely,  too,  not  on  an  organized  force, 

1  Henry  Wilson  gave  to  its  managing  editor,  Sidney  How 
ard  Gay,  the  credit  of  keeping  the  Tribune  loyal  during  the 
war. 

187 


Horace  Greeley 


but  on  raw  recruits,  hurriedly  summoned 
from  peaceful  pursuits,  and  who  had  to  be 
organized,  drilled,  fed,  and  sheltered  under 
the  direction  of  officers  who  were  themselves 
without  experience,  save  what  some  of  them 
had  been  taught  in  the  military  school.  But 
when  a  war  begins,  both  sides  are  generally 
confident,  and  the  desire  of  the  public  is  for 
speedy  action.  It  was  so  in  1861,  and  the 
Tribune  soon  gave  voice  to  this  desire  by 
printing,  day  after  day,  on  its  editorial  page, 
the  following  advice: 

"THE  NATION'S  WAK-CKY 

"Forward  to  Richmond!  Forward  to 
Richmond!  The  rebel  Congress  must  not  be 
allowed  to  meet  there  on  the  twentieth  of 
July!  By  that  date  the  place  must  be  held 
by  the  national  army." 

When  the  advance  was  made,  and  the  dis 
aster  of  Bull  Bun  followed,  Greeley  and  the 
Tribune  incurred  what  might  be  called  a  na 
tional  denunciation.  "The  battle  of  Bull 
Run,"  says  Parton,  "nearly  cost  the  editor 
of  the  Tribune  his  life.  Mr.  Greeley  was  al 
most  beside  himself  with  horror,"  to  which 
"was  added,  perhaps,  some  contrition  for  hav 
ing  permitted  the  paper  to  goad  the  Govern 
ment  into  an  advance  which  events  showed  to 
188 


During  the  Civil  War 

be  either  too  late  or  premature."  Greeley 
made  a  statement  in  July,  1861,  in  which  he 
said  that  while  the  cry,  "Forward  to  Bich- 
mond  "  was  not  his  coining,  and  he  would 
have  preferred  not  to  iterate  it,  he  assumed 
the  responsibility  for  it,  but  averred  that 
neither  he  nor  any  one  connected  with  the 
Tribune  "ever  commended  or  imagined  any 
such  strategy  as  the  launching  of  barely  thir 
ty  of  the  one  hundred  thousand  Union  volun 
teers  within  fifty  miles  of  Washington, 
against  ninety  thousand  rebels,  enveloped  in 
a  labyrinth  of  strong  entrenchments,  and  un- 
reconnoitered  masked  batteries."  This  ex 
planation  of  his  position  he  repeated  in  later 
years,  saying,  for  instance,  in  his  most  care 
ful  estimate  of  Lincoln l  that  the  early  delay 
was  due  to  the  President's  "delusion"  that 
"soft  words  would  obviate  all  necessity  for 
deadly  strife,"  and  that,  because  of  this, 
"new  volunteers  were  left  for  weeks  to  rot 
in  idleness  and  dissipation  in  the  outskirts 
and  purlieus  of  Washington,  because  their 
commander-in-chief  believed  that  it  would 
never  be  necessary  or  advisable  to  load  their 
muskets  with  ball  cartridges."  The  extent  of 
Greeley's  panic  was  not  disclosed  until  the 

1  Address  printed  in  the  Century,  July,  1891. 

189 


Horace  Greeley 


publication  of  the  following  letter  to  Lincoln 
in  1887,  many  years  after  both  he  and  Lin 
coln  were  dead: 

"  NEW  YORK,  Monday,  July  29, 1861.    Midnight. 

"DEAR  SIB:  This  is  my  seventh  sleepless 
night — yours,  too,  doubtless — yet  I  think  I 
shall  not  die,  because  I  have  no  right  to  die. 
I  must  struggle  to  live,  however  bitterly.  But 
to  business.  You  are  not  considered  a  great 
man,  and  I  am  a  hopelessly  broken  one.  You 
are  now  undergoing  a  terrible  ordeal,  and 
God  has  thrown  the  gravest  responsibilities 
upon  you.  Do  not  fear  to  meet  them.  Can 
the  rebels  be  beaten  after  all  that  has  oc 
curred,  and  in  view  of  the  actual  state  of  feel 
ing  caused  by  our  late  awful  disaster?  If 
they  can — and  it  is  your  business  to  ascer 
tain  and  decide — write  me  that  such  is  your 
judgment,  so  that  I  may  know  and  do  my 
duty.  And  if  they  can  not  be  beaten — if  our 
recent  disaster  is  fatal — do  not  fear  to  sacri 
fice  yourself  to  your  country.  If  the  rebels 
are  not  to  be  beaten — if  that  is  your  judg 
ment  in  view  of  all  the  light  you  can  get — 
then  every  drop  of  blood  henceforth  shed 
in  this  quarrel  will  be  wantonly,  wickedly 
shed,  and  the  guilt  will  rest  heavily  on  the 
soul  of  every  promoter  of  the  crime.  I  pray 
190 


During  the  Civil  War 

you  to  decide  quickly,  and  let  me  know  my 
duty. 

"If  the  Union  is  irrevocably  gone,  an  ar 
mistice  for  thirty,  sixty,  ninety,  one  hundred 
and  twenty  days — better  still  for  a  year — 
ought  at  once  to  be  proposed  with  a  view 
to  a  peaceful  adjustment  Then  Congress 
should  call  a  national  convention,  to  meet  at 
the  earliest  possible  day.  And  there  should 
be  an  immediate  and  mutual  exchange  or  re 
lease  of  prisoners  and  a  disbandment  of 
forces.  I  do  not  consider  myself  at  present 
a  judge  of  anything  but  the  public  sentiment. 
That  seems  to  me  everywhere  gathering  and 
deepening  against  a  prosecution  of  the  war. 
The  gloom  in  this  city  is  funereal — for  our 
dead  at  Bull  Kun  were  many,  and  they  lie 
unburied  yet.  On  every  brow  sits  sullen, 
scorching,  black  despair.  It  would  be  easy 
to  have  Mr.  Crittenden  move  any  proposi 
tion  that  ought  to  be  adopted,  or  to  have  it 
come  from  any  proper  quarter.  The  first 
point  is  to  ascertain  what  is  best  that  can 
be  done — which  is  the  measure  of  our 
duty — and  do  that  very  thing  at  the  earliest 
moment. 

"This  letter  is  written  in  the  strictest  con 
fidence,  and  is  for  your  eye  alone.  But  you 
are  at  liberty  to  say  to  members  of  your  Cab- 
191 


Horace  Greeley 

inet  that  you  know  I  will  second  any  move 
ment  you  may  see  fit  to  make.  But  do  noth 
ing  timidly  nor  by  halves.  Send  me  word 
what  to  do.  I  will  live  till  I  can  hear  it,  at 
all  events.  If  it  is  best  for  the  country  and 
for  mankind  that  we  make  peace  with  the  reb 
els  at  once,  and  on  their  own  terms,  do  not 
shrink  even  from  that.  But  bear  in  mind  the 
greatest  truth:  l  Whoso  would  lose  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  save  it.'  Do  the  thing  that 
is  the  highest  right,  and  tell  me  how  I  am  to 
second  you. 

"Yours,  in  the  depth  of  bitterness, 
" HORACE  GBEELEY."  1 

Even  this  letter  did  not  discourage  the 
President.  His  biographers  say:  "He  smiled 
at  frettings  like  those  of  Scott,  Dix,  and  Eich- 
ardson ;  but  letters  like  that  of  Greeley  made 
him  sigh  at  the  strange  weakness  of  human 
character.  Such  things  gave  him  pain,  but 
they  bred  no  resentment,  and  elicited  no 
reply." 

1  The  publication  of  this  letter  was  a  shock  to  Greeley's  old 
Tribune  office  friends,  and  Samuel  Sinclair,  long  his  publisher, 
in  a  note  to  that  journal,  dated  January  1,  1888,  said  :  "  When 
that  letter  was  written  Mr.  Greeley  had  been  and  was  still 
severely  ill  with  brain  fever;  the  entire  letter,  in  my  judg 
ment,  revealed  that  he  was  on  the  verge  of  insanity  when  he 
wrote  it." 

192 


During  the  Civil  War 

Greeley's  lack  of  faith  in  the  ability  of  the 
North  to  preserve  the  Union  by  force  of  arms 
next  manifested  itself  in  efforts  to  settle  the 
dispute  by  negotiation.  With  this  end  in 
view,  he  was  ready  to  treat  either  with  the 
representative  of  a  foreign  power  or  with 
any  one  assuming  to  represent  the  Confed 
eracy.  M.  Mercier,  the  French  minister  at 
Washington,  was  openly  friendly  to  the 
South.  He  had  advised  the  Emperor  Napo 
leon  to  recognize  the  Confederacy  and  to 
raise  the  blockade,  and  was  using  all  his  in 
fluence  in  behalf  of  the  rebellious  States.  In 
1862  Greeley  appealed  to  Mercier  to  secure 
the  intervention  of  the  French  Government 
to  end  the  war.  Mercier  commended  the  sug 
gestion  to  his  fellow  diplomats  in  Washing 
ton,  urging  that  it  was  an  indication  of  the 
weakness  of  even  the  radicals  of  the  North, 
and  declaring  that  the  idea  that  Greeley 
would  favor  no  step  that  would  endanger  the 
Union  was  "all  bosh." 

The  view  of  the  administration  at  Wash 
ington  concerning  these  negotiations  was  set 
forth  in  a  reply  by  Secretary  Seward  to  a  de 
spatch  from  the  French  Foreign  Secretary  to 
M.  Mercier,  suggesting  "informal  confer 
ences  "  with  the  Confederates  to  end  the  war. 
In  this  reply  (dated  February  6,  1863),  Sew- 
14  '  193 


Horace  Greeley 

ard  repudiated  the  suggestion  that  the  war 
had  not  been  vigorously  carried  on,  and  said : 
"M.  de  1'Huys,  I  fear,  has  taken  other  light 
than  the  correspondence  of  this  Government 
for  his  guidance  in  ascertaining  its  temper 
and  firmness.  He  has  probably  read  of  divi 
sions  of  sentiment  among  those  who  hold 
themselves  forth  as  organs  of  public  opinion 
here,  and  has  given  to  them  undue  impor 
tance."  As  to  the  appointment  of  commis 
sioners  by  our  Government  and  the  Confed 
erates,  to  meet  on  neutral  ground  and  discuss 
the  situation,  he  said:  "The  commissioners 
must  agree  in  recommending  either  that  the 
Union  shall  stand  or  that  it  shall  be  volun 
tarily  dissolved;  or  else  they  must  leave  the 
vital  question  unsettled,  to  abide  at  last  the 
fortunes  of  war.  .  .  .  There  is  not  the  least 
ground  to  suppose  that  the  controlling  (in 
surgent)  actors  would  be  persuaded  at  this 
moment,  by  any  arguments  which  national 
commissioners  could  offer,  to  forego  the  am 
bition  that  has  impelled  them  to  the  disloyal 
position  they  are  occupying.  Any  commis 
sioners  who  should  be  appointed  by  these 
actors,  or  through  their  dictation  or  influence, 
must  enter  the  conference  imbued  with  the 
spirit  and  pledged  to  the  personal  fortunes 
of  the  insurgent  chiefs.  The  loyal  people  in 
194 


During  the  Civil  War 

the  insurrectionary  States  would  be  unheard, 
and  any  offer  of  peace  by  this  Government, 
on  the  condition  of  the  maintenance  of  the 
Union,  must  necessarily  be  rejected.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  this 
Government  has  not  the  least  thought  of  re 
linquishing  the  trust  which  has  been  confided 
to  it  by  the  nation  under  the  most  solemn  of 
all  political  sanctions ;  and,  if  it  had  any  such 
thought,  it  would  still  have  abundant  reason 
to  know  that  peace  proposed  at  the  cost  of 
dissolution  would  be  immediately,  unreserv 
edly,  and  indignantly  rejected  by  the  Amer 
ican  people." 

Henry  J.  Kaymond,  in  his  journal,1  men 
tions  that  Collector  Barney  told  him  in 
Washington,  on  January  25,  1863,  that  he 
knew  that  Greeley  had  been  in  correspond 
ence  with  Vallandigham  about  mediation,  and 
that  later  Greeley  said  to  him  (Kaymond), 
on  the  Albany  boat,  that  "he  meant  to  carry 
out  the  policy  of  foreign  mediation,  and  of 
bringing  the  war  to  a  close.  '  You'll  see,'  said 
he,  *  that  Til  drive  Lincoln  into  it.'  "  On  the 
way  back  to  New  York  one  of  the  trustees  of 
the  Tribune  Association  told  Eaymond  that 
the  trustees  would  not  permit  Greeley  to  con- 

1  Scribner's  Monthly,  March,  1880. 

195 


Horace  Greeley 


tinue  the  advocacy  of  intervention  in  the 
paper.1 

Eaymond  also  recalls  an  after-dinner  con 
versation  in  Washington,  on  January  26, 
1863,  when  Secretary  Seward,  Rev.  Dr.  Bel 
lows,  George  Bancroft,  General  McDowell, 
and  others  were  present,  at  which  Seward 
spoke  very  bitterly  of  the  effect  of  Greeley's 
negotiations  with  the  French  minister,  and 
said  that  Greeley  had  clearly  made  himself 
liable  to  the  penalties  of  the  law  forbidding 
such  intercourse. 

In  August,  1862,  following  McClellan's  re 
treat  from  the  Virginia  peninsula,  Greeley 
addressed  to  President  Lincoln  through  the 
columns  of  the  Tribune  a  long  letter  under 
the  title  The  Prayer  of  Twenty  Millions, 
signed  with  his  initials.  It  began  by  saying 
that  the  President  must  already  know  that 

1  In  one  of  its  articles  favoring  mediation  by  a  friendly 
foreign  power,  the  Tribune  (in  January,  1863)  said:  "The 
prevalent  opinion  on  that  [European]  side  of  the  Atlantic 
blames  us  Unionists  more  than  the  rebels  because  it  is  their 
belief  that  the  rebels  are  willing  and  anxious  for  peace  on  any 
terms  that  impartial  judges  shall  deem  fair,  while  our  Govern 
ment  will  listen  to  no  terms  short  of  unconditional  submission 
to  its  authority,  and  this  conviction  does  very  great  harm  to 
our  cause."  It  would  therefore  assume  that  a  foreign  offer  of 
mediation  was  friendly  and  generous,  and  agree  to  consider 
arbitration  when  the  Confederate  assent  thereto  had  been 
obtained. 

196 


During  the  Civil  War 

his  supporters  "are  sorely  disappointed  and 
deeply  pained  by  the  policy  you  seem  to  be 
pursuing  with  regard  to  the  slaves  of  rebels." 
Under  nine  headings  he  set  forth  the  specifi 
cations  of  this  charge,  its  main  points  being 
that  the  President  was  "  strangely  and  disas 
trously  remiss  "  in  regard  to  the  emancipa 
tion  provisions  of  the  new  confiscation  act; 
that  the  Union  cause  had  suffered  immense 
ly  from  mistaken  deference  to  rebel  slavery ; 
that  timid  counsels  in  such  a  crisis  were  cal 
culated  to  prove  perilous;  and  that  if  the 
President,  in  his  inaugural  address,  had 
given  notice  that,  if  rebellion  was  persisted 
in,  he  would  "recognize  no  loyal  person  as 
rightfully  held  in  slavery  by  a  traitor,"  the 
rebellion  would  have  received  a  staggering, 
if  not  fatal,  blow.  Finally,  he  demanded  that 
the  President  give  his  subordinates  direction 
that,  under  the  confiscation  act,  the  slaves  of 
rebels  coming  or  brought  within  the  Union 
lines  were  to  be  free. 

This  letter  called  out  Lincoln's  reply  of 
August  22,  in  which  he  said:  "My  paramount 
object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save  the  Union, 
and  is  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any 
slave  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  slaves  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could 
197 


Horace  Greeley 


do  it  by  freeing  some,  and  leaving  others 
alone,  I  would  also  do  that.  What  I  do  about 
slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  because 
I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union."  In 
less  than  a  month  from  the  receipt  of  Gree- 
ley's  letter,  Lincoln  issued  his  emancipation 
proclamation.  As  some  writers  have  held 
that  this  proclamation  was  a  result  of  Gree- 
ley's  prodding,  it  is  interesting  to  obtain 
Greeley's  own  statement  on  this  point.  In  his 
lecture  on  Lincoln,  written  about  the  year 
1868,  he  thus  disposed  of  this  matter:  "I  had 
not  besought  him  to  proclaim  general  eman 
cipation;  I  had  only  urged  him  to  give  full 
effect  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  which  pre 
scribed  that  slaves  employed  with  their  mas 
ters'  acquiescence  in  support  of  the  rebellion 
should  henceforth  be  treated  as  free  by  such 
employment,  and  by  the  general  hostility  of 
their  owners  to  the  national  authority.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  had  been 
prepared  before  he  ever  saw  my  '  prayer,' 
and  that  this  was  merely  used  by  him  as  an 
opportunity,  an  occasion,  an  excuse,  for  set 
ting  his  own  altered  position — changed  not  at 
his  volition,  but  by  circumstances — fairly  be 
fore  the  country."  l 

1  Owen  Lovejoy,  writing  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison  in  Feb 
ruary,  1864,  about  the  reported  influence  which  induced  Lin- 

198 


During  the  Civil  War 

The  earliest  opposition  to  Lincoln's  re- 
nomination  manifested  itself  in  a  call  for  a 
convention  to  be  held  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  one 
week  before  the  date  of  the  National  Repub 
lican  Convention.  The  New  Yorkers  who 
signed  this  call  included  advocates  of  the 
nomination  of  General  Fremont,  the  Eev. 
George  B.  Cheever  and  Elizabeth  Cady  Stan- 
ton.  B.  Gratz  Brown,  Greeley's  running  mate 
in  1872,  was  one  of  the  signers  in  St.  Louis, 
and  Wendell  Phillips  was  a  warm  sympa 
thizer  with  the  movement.  The  convention, 
amid  much  disorder,  nominated  General  Fre 
mont  for  President,  and  John  Cochran  for 
Vice-President  (both  from  the  same  State, 
the  Constitution  to  the  contrary,  notwith 
standing).  Fremont  accepted,  but  Cochran 


coin  to  issue  the  emancipation  proclamation,  said :  "  Now,  the 
fact  is  this,  as  I  had  it  from  his  own  lips :  He  had  written  the 
proclamation  in  the  summer,  as  early  as  June,  I  think — but 
will  not  be  certain  about  the  precise  time — and  called  his  Cab 
inet  together  and  informed  them  he  had  written  it  and  meant 
to  make  it,  but  wanted  to  read  it  to  them  for  any  criticism  or 
remarks  as  to  features  or  details.  After  having  done  so,  Mr. 
Seward  suggested  whether  it  would  not  be  well  for  him  to 
withhold  its  publication  until  after  we  had  gained  some  sub 
stantial  advantage  in  the  field,  as  at  that  time  we  had  met 
with  many  reverses  and  it  might  be  considered  a  cry  of 
despair.  He  told  me  he  thought  the  suggestion  a  good  one, 
and  so  held  on  to  the  proclamation  until  after  the  battle  of 
Antietam." 

199 


Horace  Greeley 


withdrew  his  name,  and  the  Cleveland  ticket 
was  not  heard  of  further. 

Meanwhile,  the  Republicans  all  over  the 
country  were  manifesting  their  demand  for 
Lincoln's  second  nomination,  and  the  work  of 
the  Baltimore  convention  was,  so  far  as  the 
head  of  the  ticket  was  concerned,  decided  in 
advance.  A  committee,  self-constituted,  of 
which  Greeley's  long-time  opponent  William 
Cullen  Bryant  was  a  member,  urged  the  Na 
tional  Republican  Committee  to  postpone  the 
convention.  The  Tribune  made  no  editorial 
comment  on  Fremont's  nomination,  but  the 
day  before  the  Republican  convention  met  it 
declared  its  conviction  that  the  gathering 
should  be  postponed  "while  every  effort  of 
the  loyal  millions  should  be  directed  toward 
the  overthrow  of  the  armed  hosts  of  the  re 
bellion,"  adding:  "We  feel  that  the  expected 
nomination,  if  made  at  this  time,  exposes  the 
Union  party  to  a  dangerous  'flank  move 
ment  ' — possibly  a  successful  one." 

When  the  renomination  of  Lincoln  was 
made,  the  Tribune  restated  its  objection. 
And  what  was  itl  That  there  were  a  large 
number  of  foes  in  our  own  household,  at 
heart  enemies  of  the  national  cause,  who 
wanted  the  war  to  break  down,  and  the  Gov 
ernment  to  be  forced  to  make  peace  on  the 
200 


During  the  Civil  War 

rebels'  terms ;  that  these  men  made  their  as 
saults  under  cover  of  hostility  to  the  admin 
istration,  and  that  "the  renomination  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  will  inevitably  intensify  their  efforts, 
and  rebarb  their  arrows.  .  .  .  We  believe  the 
rebellion  would  have  lost  something  of  its  co 
hesion  and  venom  from  the  hour  in  which  it 
was  known  that  a  new  President  would  surely 
be  inaugurated  on  the  fourth  of  March  next; 
and  that  hostility  in  the  loyal  States  to  the 
national  cause  must  have  sensibly  abated,  or 
been  deprived  of  its  most  dangerous  weapons, 
from  the  moment  that  all  were  brought  to 
realize  that  the  President,  having  no  more  to 
expect  or  hope,  could  henceforth  be  influenced 
by  no  conceivable  motive  but  a  desire  to  serve 
and  save  his  country,  and  thus  win  for  him 
self  an  enviable  and  enduring  fame."  In  the 
light  of  what  we  now  know  of  Lincoln's  part 
and  Greeley's  part  in  pushing  the  great 
struggle  for  the  preservation  of  the  nation  to 
a  successful  end,  it  is  unnecessary  to  com 
ment  on  this  proposal  to  surrender  Lincoln 
as  a  sop  to  Northern  "Copperheads,"  or  on 
this  stab  at  the  motives  of  the  man  who  was 
wearing  his  heart  out  in  the  nation's  behalf. 
Greeley's  hostility  to  Lincoln  did  not 
cease  with  the  action  of  the  National  Kepub- 
lican  Convention.  The  summer  of  1864  was 
201 


Horace  Greeley 

a  trying  one  to  all  loyal  hearts,  and  when 
August  closed  Grant  had  met  with  a  check 
before  Petersburg,  Sherman  was  supposed 
still  to  be  out  of  Atlanta,  and  the  Democratic 
National  Convention  had  pronounced  the  war 
a  failure,  and  called  for  a  cessation  of  hos 
tilities.  Two  days  after  this  platform  was 
adopted,  Greeley,  on  September  2,  sent  to  the 
Governors  of  the  loyal  States  a  letter  making 
three  inquiries :  "Is  the  reelection  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln  a  probability?  Can  your  own  State  be 
carried  for  Mr.  Lincoln!  Do  the  interests  of 
the  Union  party  require  the  substitution  of 
another  candidate  in  place  of  Mr.  Lincoln?  " 
The  replies  of  the  loyal  Governors  were  re 
bukes  to  the  editor's  suggestion.  How  could 
they  be  otherwise?  The  withdrawal  of  the 
Eepublican  candidate  a  few  weeks  before  the 
election  would  have  been  an  acknowledgment 
of  weakness  that  would  have  meant  party  de 
moralization  and  certain  defeat  at  the  polls, 
no  matter  who  might  have  been  put  up  in 
Mr.  Lincoln's  place.  Verily,  Thurlow  Weed 
was  correct  when  he  thought  that  Greeley 
"knew  nothing  about  politics." 

Greeley 's  defeat  in  his  efforts  to  prevent 

Lincoln's  renomination  did  not  make  him  any 

more  modest  in  playing  the  part  of  adviser 

to  the  administration.     "In  personal  inter- 

202 


During  the  Civil  War 

views,  in  private  letters,  and  in  the  columns 
of  the  Tribune,  he  repeatedly  placed  before 
the  President  with  that  vigor  of  expression 
in  which  he  was  unrivaled  the  complaints 
and  the  discontents  of  a  considerable  body  of 
devoted,  if  not  altogether  reasonable,  Union 
men,"  thus  drawing  around  him  "a  certain 
number  of  adventurers  and  busybodies,  who 
fluttered  between  the  two  great  parties,  and 
were  glad  to  occupy  the  attention  of  promi 
nent  men  on  either  side  with  schemes  whose 
only  real  object  was  some  slight  gain  or  ques 
tionable  notoriety  for  themselves." l  One  of 
these  adventurers  who  gained  Greeley's  ear 
was  William  Cornell  Jewett,  "of  Colorado," 
who  had  been  an  interminable  epistolary  ad 
viser  of  the  President.  In  July,  1864,  he 
wrote  Greeley  from  Niagara  Falls  that  two 
Confederate  ambassadors  were  then  in  Can 
ada,  with  "full  and  complete  powers  for  a 
peace,"  and  urging  Greeley  to  go  on  at  once 
for  the  purpose  of  a  private  interview,  or  to 
obtain  the  President's  protection,  that  they 
might  meet  Greeley  in  the  United  States. 

This  proposition  so  impressed  Greeley 
that  he  wrote  to  the  President,  reminding  him 
that  "  our  bleeding,  bankrupt  country  also 

1  Nicolay-Hay  Lincoln,  ix,  p.  184. 
203 


Horace  Greeley 

longs  for  peace;  shudders  at  the  prospect  of 
fresh  conscriptions,  of  further  wholesale  dev 
astation,  and  of  new  rivers  of  blood,"  disap 
proving  of  the  warlike  tone  of  the  platform 
on  which  Lincoln  had  just  been  renominated 
(Greeley's  old  rival,  Henry  J.  Eaymond  had 
reported  it),  and  suggesting,  as  terms  of  set 
tlement,  a  Union  restored  and  declared  per 
petual,  the  abolition  of  slavery,  with  com 
plete  amnesty,  and  a  $400,000,000  indemnity 
for  the  freed  slaves.  In  closing,  he  expressed 
a  fear  that  Lincoln  did  not  realize  how  in 
tently  the  people  desired  "  any  peace  con 
sistent  with  the  national  integrity  and  hon 
or,"  adding,  "with  United  States  stocks  worth 
but  forty  cents  in  gold  per  dollar,  and 
drafting  about  to  commence  on  the  third 
million  of  Union  soldiers,  can  this  be  won 
dered  at?  " 

Lincoln's  patience  and  kindly  treatment 
of  Greeley  throughout  this  episode  are  ad 
mirably  set  forth  in  the  Nicolay-Hay  biogra 
phy.  Realizing  the  futility  of  the  proposed 
negotiations,  as  well  as  Greeley's  honesty  of 
purpose,  Lincoln  decided  to  make  use  of 
his  offer  in  order  to  show  the  country  what 
such  negotiations  would  amount  to.  So  he 
placed  Greeley  in  the  front  as  negotiator, 
replying  to  him  as  follows:  "If  you  can  find 
204 


During  the  Civil  War 

any  person,  anywhere,  professing  to  have 
any  proposition  of  Jefferson  Davis  in  wri 
ting,  for  peace,  embracing  the  restoration  of 
the  Union  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery, 
whatever  else  it  embraces,  say  to  him  that 
he  may  come  to  me  with  you,"  under  a 
safe-conduct.  This  broad  acceptance  of  any 
authorized  peace  agent,  under  Greeley's  guid 
ance,  puzzled  the  editor,  and  he  first  re 
plied,  expressing  doubt  whether  the  negotia 
tors  would  "open  their  budget  "  to  him.  But 
very  soon  afterward  he  wrote  Lincoln  again, 
giving  him  in  confidence  the  names  of  the 
Confederate  agents  (Clement  C.  Clay,  of  Ala 
bama,  and  Jacob  Thompson,  of  Mississippi), 
saying  that  he  had  reliable  information  of 
their  authority  and  anxiety  to  confer  with  the 
President  or  such  persons  as  he  might  au 
thorize  to  treat  with  them,  and  urging  prompt 
action,  that  it  might  do  good  in  the  coming 
North  Carolina  election.  Greeley  thus  ig 
nored  the  authority  already  given  him  to  con 
duct  the  peace  agents  to  Washington ;  but  the 
patient  Lincoln,  in  order  to  bring  the  matter 
to  a  head,  sent  Major  John  Hay  (the  present 
Secretary  of  State)  to  him  with  a  letter 
expressing  his  disappointment  that  Greeley 
had  not  reached  Washington  with  the  Con 
federate  commissioners,  repeating  the  invita- 
205 


Horace  Greeley 


tion  to  bring  them,  and  concluding,  "I  not 
only  intend  a  sincere  effort  for  peace,  but 
intend  that  you  shall  be  a  personal  witness 
that  it  is  made." 

Greeley  still  hesitated,  but  he  finally 
consented  to  go  to  Niagara  if  he  should  be 
furnished  with  a  safe-conduct  to  Washington 
for  four  persons,  and  this  was  imme'diately 
granted.  Upon  his  arrival  at  Niagara  he 
sent  by  Jewett  a  letter  to  the  Confederate 
negotiators,  telling  them  of  the  safe-con 
duct  he  had  for  them  if  they  were  "  duly 
accredited  from  Eichmond  as  the  bearers  of 
propositions  looking  to  the  establishment  of 
peace."  Thereupon  he  was  informed  that  the 
men  whom  he  was  addressing  had  no  such 
credentials;  as  they  wrote  to  him  later,  that 
was  "a  character  we  had  no  right  to  assume, 
and  had  never  affected  to  possess."  They 
could  only  aver  that  they  knew  the  view  of 
their  Government,  and  could  get  credentials. 
In  other  words,  whatever  terms  might  then 
have  been  proposed,  would  have  been  over 
tures  from  the  United  States  Government  to 
the  Confederates.  But  Greeley  did  not  com 
prehend  this,  and  simply  reported  to  Lincoln 
the  reply  he  had  received,  and  asked  for  fur 
ther  instructions.  Lincoln's  patience  was  not 
even  then  exhausted.  He  sent  to  Greeley  at 
206 


During  the  Civil  War 

once,  by  the  hands  of  Major  Hay,  the  follow 
ing  in  his  own  handwriting: 

"  EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  18, 1864. 
"To  Whom  it  May  Concern:  Any  propo 
sition  which  embraces  the  restoration  of 
peace,  the  integrity  of  the  whole  Union,  and 
the  abandonment  of  slavery,  and  which  comes 
by  and  with  an  authority  that  can  control  the 
armies  now  at  war  against  the  United  States, 
will  be  received  and  considered  by  the  Ex 
ecutive  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
will  be  met  by  liberal  terms  on  other  substan 
tial  points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof 
shall  have  safe-conduct  both  ways. 

"ABKAHAM  LINCOLN." 

The  handing  of  this  letter  to  one  of  the 
Confederates  practically  ended  the  negotia 
tions.  But  Greeley,  unknown  to  Major  Hay, 
privately  authorized  Jewett  to  act  as  his 
(Greeley's)  representative  in  regard  to  any 
future  offers  that  might  come  from  the  Con 
federates;  Jewett  made  known  to  the  latter 
his  regrets  over  the  "  sad  termination  "  of  the 
deliberations;  the  Confederates  sent  him  a 
letter  addressed  to  Greeley,  in  which  they  at 
tacked  the  President  for  alleged  lack  of  good 
faith,  and  Jewett  gave  this  letter  to  the  news 
papers.  In  the  newspaper  discussion  of  the 
207 


Horace  Greeley 


matter  that  followed,  Greeley  agreed  with 
the  Confederates  that  the  President's  safe- 
conduct  abrogated  the  condition  he  had  orig 
inally  set  forth,  thus  making  a  "rude  with 
drawal  of  a  courteous  overture  for  negotia 
tion  at  a  moment  it  was  likely  to  be  accepted," 
and  being  "an  emphatic  recall  of  words  of 
peace  just  uttered,  and  fresh  blasts  of  war 
to  the  bitter  end."  In  the  Tribune  of  August 
5,  1864,  he  held  that  the  President's  letter  of 
July  18  changed  the  situation  entirely,  but 
added,  "I  am  quite  sure  the  mistake  was  not 
originally  the  President's,  but  that  of  some 
one  or  more  of  the  gentlemen  who  are  paid 
$8,000  a  year  from  the  Treasury  for  giving 
him  bad  advice;  and  from  certain  earmarks 
I  infer  that  it  had  its  initial  impulse  from  the 
War  Department." 

Lincoln,  in  his  kindness  of  heart  toward 
Greeley,  proposed  to  the  latter  that,  in  view 
of  the  probable  necessity  of  publishing  their 
correspondence,  parts  of  Greeley's  letters,  in 
cluding  those  referring  to  the  probable  polit 
ical  advantage  of  the  peace  negotiations,  be 
omitted,  and  invited  him  to  Washington  for  a 
personal  discussion.  This  invitation  Greeley 
declined,  and  in  his  reply  to  a  second  one  he 
said: 

"I  fear  that  my  chance  for  usefulness  has 
208 


During  the  Civil  War 

passed.  I  know  that  nine-tenths  of  the  whole 
American  people,  North  and  South,  are  anx 
ious  for  peace — peace  on  almost  any  terms 
— and  utterly  sick  of  human  slaughter  and 
devastation.  I  know  that,  to  the  general  eye, 
it  now  seems  that  the  rebels  are  anxious  to 
negotiate,  and  that  we  repulse  their  advances. 
I  know  that  if  this  impression  be  not  re 
moved  we  shall  be  beaten  out  of  sight  next 
November.  I  firmly  believe  that,  were  the 
election  to  take  place  to-morrow,  the  Demo 
cratic  majority  in  this  State  and  Pennsylva 
nia  would  amount  to  100,000,  and  that  we 
should  lose  Connecticut  also.1  Now,  if  the 
rebellion  can  be  crushed  before  November,  it 
will  do  to  go  on;  if  not,  we  are  rushing  on 
certain  ruin. 

"What,  then,  can  I  do  in  Washington? 
Your  trusted  advisers  nearly  all  think  I 
ought  to  go  to  Fort  Lafayette  for  what  I  have 
done  already.  Seward  wanted  me  sent  there 
for  my  brief  conference  with  M.  Mercier. 
The  cry  had  steadily  been,  No  truce!  No  ar 
mistice  !  No  negotiation !  No  mediation !  Noth 
ing  but  surrender  at  discretion!  I  never 
heard  of  such  fatuity  before.  There  is  noth- 

1  Pennsylvania  gave  Lincoln  20,075  majority  the  following 
November,  Connecticut  gave  him  2,406,  and  New  York  gave 
Seymour  only  6,749. 

is  209 


Horace  Greeley 


ing  like  it  in  history.  It  must  result  in  dis 
aster,  or  all  experience  is  delusive.  .  .  . 

"In  case  peace  can  not  now  be  made,  con 
sent  to  an  armistice  for  one  year,  each  party 
to  retain,  unmolested,  all  it  now  holds,  but 
the  rebel  ports  to  be  open.  Meantime,  let  a 
national  convention  be  held,  and  there  will 
surely  be  no  war,  at  all  events." 

Greeley,  in  closing  this  correspondence, 
insisted  that  all  or  none  of  it  should  be  pub 
lished.  "This  was  accepted  by  Mr.  Lincoln," 
say  his  biographers,  "as  a  veto  upon  its  pub 
lication.  He  could  not  afford,  for  the  sake 
of  vindicating  his  own  action,  to  reveal  to  the 
country  the  despondency — one  might  almost 
say  the  desperation — of  one  so  prominent  in 
Republican  circles  as  the  editor  of  the  Trib 
une."  The  correspondence  did  not  appear 
until  Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay  laid  it  before 
their  readers  in  1890. 

One  illustration  of  Greeley's  feeling  to 
ward  Lincoln  remains  to  be  cited.  On  the 
day  that  Lincoln  was  shot  Greeley  had  writ 
ten  an  editorial,  "a  brutal,  bitter,  sarcastic 
personal  attack  "  on  the  President.  When  the 
proof  of  this  article  reached  the  hands  of  the 
managing  editor,  Sidney  Howard  Gay,  in  the 
evening,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  dying  from  his 
wound.  Gay  suppressed  the  editorial,  telling 
210 


During  the  Civil  War 

the  foreman  to  lock  up  the  type  and  tell  no 
one  of  its  existence.  The  next  day,  when 
Greeley  found  that  the  article  was  not  in  the 
paper,  he  accosted  Gay  in  a  rage,  saying, 
"They  tell  me  you  ordered  my  leader  out  of 
this  morning's  paper.  Is  it  your  paper  or 
mine?  I  should  like  to  know  if  I  can  not 
print  what  I  choose  in  my  own  paper."  Gay 
replied  that  the  article  was  still  in  type,  and 
could  be  used,  but  added:  "Only  this,  Mr. 
Greeley.  I  know  New  York,  and  I  hope  and 
believe  before  God  that  there  is  so  much  vir 
tue  in  New  York  that,  if  I  had  let  that  article 
go  into  this  morning's  paper,  there  would  not 
be  one  brick  upon  another  in  the  Tribune 
office  now."  Greeley  never  alluded  to  the  sub 
ject  again.1 

The  following  statement  has  recently  been 
printed:  "It  was  known  to  but  few  persons  at 
the  time — and  those  then  connected  with  the 
New  York  Tribune — that  President  Lincoln 
paid  a  visit  to  Horace  Greeley,  at  the  Trib 
une  office,  of  a  most  sacred  nature  and  pre 
sumably  of  a  most  urgent  and  important 
character,  somewhere  about  the  time  of  the 
accession  of  Grant  to  the  office  of  command- 
er-in-chief  of  the  army,  arriving  in  the  even- 

1  Hale's  Lowell  and  his  Friends,  pp.  178, 179. 

211 


Horace  Greeley 

ing  and  leaving  for  the  capital  early  in  the 
morning,  with  few  but  themselves  cognizant 
of  the  fact.  The  important  events  around 
Petersburg  and  Richmond  followed  shortly 
afterward,  and  those  events  were  probably 
the  subject  of  their  conference."  This  story 
is  inherently  improbable,  and  I  have  the  most 
competent  authority  for  saying  that  it  be 
longs  in  the  list  of  romances  which  include 
another  recently  published  story  that  Lincoln 
once  went  secretly  to  pass  a  night  in  prayer 
with  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

Greeley  furnished  his  own  comment  on  his 
estimate  and  treatment  of  Lincoln  during  the 
period  of  the  war.  One  of  his  best  pieces  of 
literary  work  is  an  address  on  Lincoln,  which 
he  wrote  in  1868.  In  this  he  reviewed  Lin 
coln's  entire  career,  pointing  out  mistakes 
with  which  he  credited  him,  and  summing  up 
his  estimate  of  the  man  in  these  words: 

"Never  before  did  one  so  constantly  and 
visibly  grow  under  the  discipline  of  incessant 
cares,  anxieties,  and  trials.  The  Lincoln  of 
'62  was  plainly  a  larger,  broader,  better  man 
than  he  had  been  in  '61;  while  '63  and  '64 
worked  his  continued  and  unabated  growth  in 
mental  and  moral  stature.  Few  have  been 
more  receptive,  more  sympathetic,  and  (with 
in  reasonable  limits)  more  plastic  than  he. 
212 


During  the  Civil  War 

Had  he  lived  twenty  years  longer,  I  believe 
he  would  have  steadily  increased  in  ability  to 
counsel  his  countrymen,  and  in  the  estimation 
of  the  wise  and  good.  .  .  . 

"The  republic  needed  to  be  cast  through 
chastening,  purifying  fires  of  adversity  and 
suffering;  so  these  came  and  did  their  work, 
and  the  verdure  of  a  new  national  life  springs 
greenly  from  their  ashes.  Other  men  were 
helpful  to  the  great  renervation,  and  nobly 
did  their  part  in  it ;  yet,  looking  back  through 
the  lifting  mists  of  seven  eventful,  tragic,  try 
ing,  glorious  years,  I  clearly  discern  that  the 
one  providential  leader,  the  indispensable 
hero  of  the  great  drama — faithfully  reflect 
ing  even  in  his  hesitations  and  seeming  vacil 
lation  the  sentiment  of  the  masses — fitted  by 
his  very  defects  and  shortcomings  for  the 
burden  laid  upon  him,  the  good  to  be  wrought 
out  through  him,  was  Abraham  Lincoln." 


213 


CHAPTER   IX 

GKEELEY'S  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN — HIS  DEATH 

ON  the  evening  of  March  4,  1869,  John 
Russell  Young,  the  managing  editor  of  the 
Tribune,  came  to  my  desk  (I  was  then  the 
assistant  city  editor),  with  a  long  letter,  writ 
ten  on  Tribune  notepaper,  in  his  fine  hand, 
which  he  asked  me  to  copy  for  him.  The  let 
ter  was  addressed  to  General  Grant's  inti 
mate  friend,  General  Adam  Badeau.  The 
next  morning  I  found  this  letter,  with  only 
the  necessary  alterations,  printed  as  the 
Tribune's  leading  editorial,  giving  an  outline 
of  what  the  paper  hoped  for  Grant's  admin 
istration.  There  were  to  be  economy  and  re 
trenchment;  Cuba  seemed  to  be  "falling  into 
our  lap  for  nothing  " ;  Santo  Domingo  stood 
at  our  door,  and  with  it  would  come  Porto 
Rico;  for  Canada  we  could  wait;  Grant  was 
to  change  possible  national  bankruptcy  into 
solvency,  bring  about  specie  payments,  and 
send  ships  carrying  the  American  flag  into 
every  sea — in  a  word,  to  have  a  "splendid 
214 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

administration."  At  the  close  of  the  Presi 
dent's  first  term,  the  editor  of  the  Tribune 
was  the  candidate  who  was  opposing  him  for 
reelection,  and  on  a  platform  which  was  pre 
ceded  by  an  address  accusing  the  Grant  ad 
ministration  of  usurpation  of  power,  and  of 
striking  a  blow  at  the  fundamental  principles 
of  constitutional  government  and  the  liberties 
of  the  people;  charging  the  President  with 
the  use  of  his  high  powers  for  the  promotion 
of  personal  ends,  making  the  public  service 
"a  machinery  of  corruption,"  and  alleging 
that  his  partizans  had  "kept  alive  the  pas 
sions  and  resentments  of  the  late  civil  war, 
to  use  them  for  their  own  advantage." 

In  explaining  this  changed  position,  it  is 
necessary  to  glance  back  at  the  causes  of  Re 
publican  discontent,  and  to  review  Greeley's 
position  on  the  question  of  reconstruction. 

General  Grant  naturally  carried  his  mili 
tary  ideas  into  the  White  House.  He  was  not 
tactful  in  conciliating  those  who  disagreed 
with  him  about  his  civil  policy,  and  was  stub 
born  in  supporting  men  whom  he  had  selected 
for  office  when  they  came  under  a  fire  of  ad 
verse  criticism.  Some  of  his  advisers  early 
encountered  such  criticism,  and  serious  scan 
dals  were  brought  to  light  in  the  Post-Office 
and  other  departments.  Many  Eepublicans 
215 


Horace  Greeley 

came  to  believe  that  the  President  was  per 
sonally  corrupt,  and  that  his  fidelity  to 
friends  "under  fire  "  was  due  to  his  own  con 
nection  with  their  schemes.  His  civil  ap 
pointments  were  often  very  injudicious,  and 
there  grew  up  a  large  body  of  independents 
ready  to  accept  the  declaration  of  the  Nation 
that  the  President  had  so  used  his  power  of 
appointment  that  there  was  in  office  "a  body 
of  officials  such  as  no  party  in  a  constitutional 
country  has  ever  been  served  by,  and  such  as 
no  government  except  that  of  imperial 
France  has  ever  brought  into  play  to  in 
fluence  an  election." 

Both  among  and  outside  of  the  radical 
civil  service  and  revenue  reformers  were 
many  men  in  the  North  who  were  anxious 
to  see  the  negro  question  eliminated  from 
Federal  politics.  The  disfranchisement  of 
the  leading  white  men  in  the  Southern  States 
who  had  participated  in  the  rebellion  had 
handed  over  the  governments  of  many  of 
these  States  to  the  ignorant  negroes,  and  to 
newcomers  from  the  North,  who  were  soon 
classified  under  the  name  of  "  carpetbag 
gers,"  and  an  era  of  governmental  chaos  en 
sued,  out  of  which  came  scandalous  waste  of 
the  public  funds,  the  grossest  travesties  in  the 
way  of  legislatures,  and  the  organization  of 
216 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

the  whites  in  "Kuklux  Klans,"  which,  as  is  al 
ways  the  case  in  such  organizations  formed 
outside  of  the  law,  committed  terrible  out 
rages  in  their  efforts  to  check  existing  evils. 
A  motion  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  in 
June,  1870,  to  remove  all  political  disabilities 
for  participation  in  the  rebellion  was  lost,  59 
to  112,  11  Republicans  voting  with  the  mi 
nority.  President  Grant,  in  his  message  in 
1871,  said:  "It  may  be  considered  whether  it 
is  not  now  time  that  the  disabilities  imposed 
by  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  be  removed." 
On  a  motion  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Dawes,  on 
January  15,  1872,  to  remove  all  the  disabil 
ities  named  in  this  amendment,  the  vote  was, 
yeas,  132;  nays,  70;  not  two-thirds,  as  was 
necessary  to  pass  the  resolution,  Dawes,  Gar- 
field,  and  Hale  voting  with  the  yeas. 

While  Greeley  was  not  identified  person 
ally  with  the  civil  service  reformers,  he  was 
the  leader  of  those  Republicans  who  demand 
ed  an  end  of  all  proscription  for  participation 
in  the  rebellion.  With  the  laying  down  of  the 
rebel  arms  he  had  lifted  up  his  voice  for  mag 
nanimity  toward  the  South.  The  day  after 
Lee's  surrender  the  Tribune  said  (May  10, 
1865) :  "We  can  not  believe  it  wise  or  well 
to  take  the  life  of  any  man  who  shall  have 
submitted  to  the  national  authority,"  explain- 
217 


Horace  Greeley 

ing,  "Unquestionably,  there  are  men  in  the 
South  who  have  richly  deserved  condign  pun 
ishment.  Whoever  is  responsible  for  the 
butchery  of  our  black  soldiers  vanquished  in 
fight,  or  the  still  more  atrocious  murder  of 
captives  by  wanton  exposure  in  prison- 
camps,  stands  in  this  category.  But  the  im 
mediate  issue  concerns,  not  the  dispensation 
of  justice  to  individuals,  but  the  pacification 
of  the  whole  republic." 

On  November  27,  1866,  when  a  hopeful 
candidate  for  United  States  Senator,  Gree 
ley,  with  the  knowledge  that  the  declaration 
would  destroy  his  chances  of  election,  said  in 
the  Tribune:  "I  am  for  universal  amnesty — 
so  far  as  immunity  from  fear  of  punishment 
or  confiscation  is  concerned — even  though  im 
partial  suffrage  should  for  the  present  be  re 
sisted  and  defeated.  I  did  think  it  desirable 
that  Jefferson  Davis  should  be  arraigned  and 
tried  for  treason;  and  it  still  seems  to  me 
that  this  might  properly  have  been  done 
many  months  ago.  But  it  was  not  done  then, 
and  now  I  believe  it  would  result  in  far  more 
evil  than  good.  I  hope  to  see  impartial  suf 
frage  established  by  very  general  consent. 
.  .  .  The  one  simple,  obvious  mode  of  taking 
the  negro  out  of  politics  is  to  treat  him  as  a 


218 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

Greeley  visited  Washington  by  invitation 
after  the  elections  of  1865,  and  took  part  in 
conferences  with  President  Johnson,  the  ob 
ject  of  which  was  to  secure  cooperation  and 
peace  between  him  and  Congress.  These  ef 
forts  failed ;  the  President  issued  a  proclama 
tion  of  amnesty,  excepting  fourteen  classes, 
including  generally  all  persons  who  had  taken 
official  part  in  the  rebellion,  and  by  procla 
mation  he  established  governments  in  several 
of  the  lately  rebellious  States ;  and  on  April 
2,  1866,  he  officially  proclaimed  the  rebellion 
at  an  end.  Congress  met,  and  appointed  a 
joint  committee  to  report  on  the  existing  con 
dition  of  the  rebelling  States,  and  the  con 
flict  between  the  President  and  the  Federal 
Legislature  ensued,  the  President  vetoing  the 
reconstruction  measures  which  Congress 
passed  during  that  conflict.  Greeley  was  a 
bitter  opponent  of  President  Johnson's  pol 
icy.  He  called  his  veto  of  the  bill  establishing 
universal  suffrage  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  "the  least  plausible  veto  message  we  ever 
read" ;  said  of  the  veto  of  the  reconstruction 
bill  (March  3,  1867) :  "Its  obvious  tendency 
to  keep  the  Southern  States  unreconstructed 
and  unrepresented  is,  in  every  view,  deplor 
able  " ;  and,  during  the  impeachment  trial,  de 
clared,  "The  nation  demands  impeachment." 
219 


Horace  Greeley 


The  reconstruction  acts  excluded  from  a 
share  in  the  new  State  governments  all  per 
sons  already  disfranchised  for  participation 
in  the  rebellion ;  an  amendment  offered  in  the 
House  by  Mr.  Elaine,  that  the  rebel  States 
should  be  entitled  to  representation  in  Con 
gress  whenever  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
to  the  Constitution  should  be  ratified,  and 
they  should  consent  to  it,  was  defeated,  69 
to  94.  Greeley  in  a  speech  in  Richmond,  Va., 
in  May,  1867,  stated  that  he  accepted  this  pro 
scription  "only  as  a  precaution  against  pres 
ent  disloyalty,"  adding:  "I  believe  the  nation 
will  insist  on  such  proscription  being  re 
moved  so  soon  as  reasonable  and  proper  as 
surances  are  given  that  disloyalty  has  ceased 
to  be  powerful  and  dangerous  in  the  South 
ern  States." 

When  Jefferson  Davis's  counsel,  George 
Shea,  an  old  friend  of  Greeley,  consulted  the 
latter  about  procuring  satisfactory  bondsmen 
for  his  client,  Greeley  suggested  two  promi 
nent  Union  men,  and  added,  "If  my  name 
should  be  found  necessary,  you  may  use 
that."  His  name  was  asked  for,  and  he  went 
to  Kichmond,  and  there,  in  May,  1867,  signed 
the  bojid  with  Gerritt  Smith,  Commodore 
Vanderbilt,  and  others.  This  act  brought 
down  on  him  such  an  avalanche  of  denuncia- 
220 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

tion  from  his  party  and  personal  admirers  as 
lie  had  never  incurred.  His  motives  were  at 
tacked,  his  interview  with  Davis  misrepre 
sented,  and  he  was  handed  over  by  thousands 
of  Republicans  to  the  company  of  the  late 
rebels.  An  indication  of  the  public  feeling 
was  furnished  by  its  effect  on  the  sale  of  his 
history  of  the  rebellion.  In  his  own  words, 
that  sale  then  "almost  ceased  for  a  season; 
thousands  who  had  subscribed  for  it  refusing 
to  take  their  copies."  But,  he  added,  "at  all 
events,  the  public  has  learned  that  I  act  upon 
my  convictions  without  fear  of  personal  con 
sequences." 

The  feeling  against  Greeley  in  New  York 
city  manifested  itself  most  pointedly  in  a  call, 
signed  by  more  than  thirty  members,  for  a 
special  meeting  of  the  Union  League  Club,  to 
consider  his  conduct  in  becoming  Davis's 
bondsman.  In  reply  to  an  official  notification 
of  this  meeting,  Greeley  wrote  to  the  signers 
of  the  call  a  vigorous  letter,  in  which  he  re 
hearsed  his  early  views  about  the  disposition 
to  be  made  of  Davis,  recalled  the  fact  that, 
soon  after  their  publication,  the  acceptance 
of  a  portrait  of  him  by  the  club  had  been  op 
posed  by  its  president,  and  added: 

"Gentlemen,  I  shall  not  attend  your  meet 
ing  this  evening.  I  have  an  engagement  out 
221 


Horace  Greeley 


of  town,  and  shall  keep  it.  I  do  not  recognize 
you  as  capable  of  judging,  or  fully  appre 
hending,  me.  You  evidently  regard  me  as  a 
weak  sentimentalist,  misled  by  a  maudling 
philosophy.  I  arraign  you  as  narrow-minded 
blockheads,  who  would  like  to  be  useful  to  a 
great  and  good  cause,  but  don't  know  how. 
Your  attempt  to  base  a  great,  enduring  party 
on  the  hate  and  wrath  necessarily  engen 
dered  by  a  bloody  civil  war,  is  as  though  you 
should  plant  a  colony  on  an  iceberg  which  had 
somehow  drifted  into  a  tropical  ocean.  I  tell 
you  here,  that,  out  of  a  life  earnestly  devoted 
to  the  good  of  human  kind,  your  children  will 
select  my  going  to  Richmond  and  signing  that 
bail  bond  as  the  wisest  act,  and  will  feel  that 
it  did  more  for  freedom  and  humanity  than 
all  of  you  were  competent  to  do,  though  you 
had  lived  to  the  age  of  Methuselah.  I  ask 
nothing  of  you,  then,  but  that  you  proceed  to 
your  end  by  a  direct,  frank,  manly  way. 
Don't  sidle  off  into  a  mild  resolution  of  cen 
sure,  but  move  the  expulsion  which  you  pro 
pose,  and  which  I  deserve,  if  I  deserve  any 
reproach  whatever.  All  I  care  for  is  that 
you  make  this  a  square,  stand-up  fight,  and 
record  your  judgment  by  yeas  and  nays." 

The  club,  at  its  meeting,  adopted  a  reso 
lution  setting  forth  that  there  was  nothing  in 
222 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

Greeley's,  action  "calling  for  proceedings  of 
this  club." 

While  Greeley  was  in  Eichmond  he  ac 
cepted  an  invitation  to  deliver  an  address  in 
the  African  Church,  in  which  he  made  an 
earnest  plea  for  good-will  and  reconciliation. 
He  pointed  out  objections  to  some  of  the  laws 
passed  by  the  Southern  State  governments 
established  under  military  rule — such  as  the 
prohibition  against  negroes  bearing  arms  or 
testifying  against  whites  in  the  courts — call 
ing  them  "unnecessary,  invidious,  and  degra 
ding."  Urging  the  obligation  of  the  South  as 
well  as  the  North  to  the  blacks,  he  said: 
"Their  equal  rights  as  citizens  are  to  be  se 
cured  now  or  not  at  all.  I  insist,  then,  in 
the  name  of  justice  and  humanity,  in  the 
name  of  our  country,  and  of  every  righteous 
interest  and  section  of  that  country,  that  the 
rights  of  all  the  American  people — native  or 
naturalized,  born  such  or  made  such — shall 
be  guaranteed  in  the  State  Constitutions  first, 
and  in  the  Federal  Constitution  as  soon  as 
possible ;  that  we  make  it  a  fundamental  con 
dition  of  American  law  and  policy  that  every 
citizen  shall  have,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  every 
right  of  every  other  citizen.  I  would  make 
the  equal  rights  of  the  colored  people  of  the 
country,  under  the  laws  and  the  Constitution 
223 


Horace  Greeley 


thereof,  the  corner-stone  of  a  true,  beneficent 
reconstruction."  As  to  the  removal  of  dis 
abilities  in  the  South,  he  would  deny  the  right 
to  a  voice  in  the  Government  to  the  "  implaca 
bly  hostile,"  but  he  would  look  to  the  removal 
of  all  proscription  at  the  earliest  possible  mo 
ment.  He  closed  thus : 

"Men  of  Virginia:  I  entreat  you  to  forget 
the  years  of  slavery  and  secession  and  civil 
war,  now  happily  passed,  in  the  hopeful  con 
templation  of  better  days  of  freedom  and 
union  and  peace  now  opening  before  you. 
Forget  that  some  of  you  have  been  masters, 
others  slaves — some  for  disunion,  others 
against  it — and  remember  only  that  you  are 
Virginians,  and  all  now  and  henceforth  free 
men.  Bear  in  mind  that  your  State  is  the 
heart  of  a  great  republic,  not  the  frontier  of 
a  weaker  Confederacy,  and  that  your  un- 
equaled  combination  of  soil,  timber,  minerals, 
and  water-power  fairly  entitles  you  to  a  pop 
ulation  of  five  millions  before  the  close  of  this 
century.  Consider  that  the  natural  highway 
of  empire — the  shortest  and  easiest  route 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  heart  of  the  great 
valley — lies  up  the  James  River  and  down  the 
Kanawha,  and  that  this  city,  with  its  mill- 
power  superior  to  any  in  our  country  but  that 
of  St.  Anthony's  Falls  on  the  Mississippi, 
224 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

ought  to  insure  you  a  speedy  development 
of  manufactures  surpassing  any  Lowell  or 
Lawrence,  with  a  population  of  at  least  half 
a  million  before  the  close  of  this  century.1 
I  exhort  you,  then,  Republicans  and  Conserv 
atives,  whites  and  blacks,  to  bury  the  dead 
past  in  mutual  and  hearty  good-will,  and  in 
a  general,  united  effort  to  promote  the  pros 
perity  and  exalt  the  glory  of  our  long  dis 
tracted  and  bleeding,  but  henceforth  reunited, 
magnificent  country." 

In  May,  1871,  Greeley  accepted  an  invita 
tion  to  address  the  Texas  State  Fair  at  Hous 
ton,  and  made  a  number  of  speeches  in  the 
South  on  his  way  to  that  city.  On  his  return, 
a  public  welcome  was  given  to  him  by  his 
admirers  at  the  Lincoln  Club  in  New  York 
city,  on  which  occasion  he  made  an  elaborate 
address,  urging  once  more  universal  amnes 
ty.  He  said  he  believed  that  the  leading  men 
of  the  South  would  be  safer  and  more  useful 
in  Congress  than  the  second-rate  men,  and 
that  the  Eepublican  party  would  be  stronger 
if  the  Tombses,  Wises,  and  Wade  Hamptons 

1  Greeley  was  not  a  good  prophet.  The  population  of  Vir 
ginia  in  1900  was  1,854,184,  and  of  Richmond  85,050.  In  his 
autobiography  he  said,  "I  predict  that  California  will  have 
3,000,000  of  people  in  1900  and  Oregon  at  least  1,000,000."  The 
population  of  California  in  1900  was  1,485,053,  and  of  Oregon 
413,536. 

w  225 


Horace  Greeley 


had  been  allowed  to  go  to  Congress  four 
years  before.  Admitting  that  dishonest  "car 
petbaggers  "  were  "a  mournful  fact,"  he  ex 
plained:  "Do  not  mistake  me.  All  the  North 
ern  men  in  the  South  are  not  thieves.  The 
larger  part  of  them  are  honest  and  good  men. 
.  .  .  The  time  has  been,  and  still  is,  when  it 
was  perilous  to  be  known  as  a  Republican 
or  an  Abolitionist  in  the  South;  but  it  never 
called  the  blush  of  shame  to  any  man's  cheek 
to  be  called  so  until  those  thieving  carpet 
baggers  went  there — never !  .  .  .  '  Well,  then, 
do  you  justify  the  Kuklux!  '  I  am  asked.  Jus 
tify  them  in  what?  If  they  should  choose  to 
catch  a  hundred  or  two  of  these  thieves,  place 
them  tenderly  across  rails,  and  bear  them 
quietly  and  peacefully  across  the  Ohio,  I 
should,  of  course,  condemn  the  act,  as  I  con 
demn  all  acts  of  violence ;  but  the  tears  live 
in  a  very  small  onion  that  would  water  all 
my  sorrow  for  them."  He  closed  with  a  plea 
for  an  end  of  fighting  over  old  issues. 

These  outspoken  expressions  made  Gree 
ley — leading  Republican  and  editor  as  he  was 
— the  acknowledged  representative  of  the 
supporters  of  universal  amnesty. 

In  no  border  State  had  the  loyal  and  rebel 
elements  contended  more  bitterly  during  the 
war  than  in  Missouri.  When  the  State  Con- 
226 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

stitution  was  revised  in  1865,  the  new  instru 
ment  disfranchised  the  sympathizers  with  the 
Confederates,  and  required  a  rigorous  test 
oath,  which  was  upheld  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  In  December,  1866,  B.  Gratz 
Brown,  an  ex-United  States  Senator,  took  the 
lead  in  a  movement  for  universal  amnesty 
and  universal  suffrage  in  the  State,  and  he 
was  warmly  supported  by  Carl  Schurz,1  who 
went  to  St.  Louis  in  1867  to  edit  a  German 
newspaper,  and  was  elected  a  United  States 
Senator  in  1869.  The  Missouri  Legislature 
of  1870  voted  to  submit  to  the  people  six 
amendments  to  the  Constitution,  which  gave 
the  right  of  suffrage  to  every  male  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  and  abolished  the  test 
oath,  and  the  oath  of  loyalty  required  of 
jurors.  The  Democrats — a  hopeless  minority 
— held  no  State  convention  that  year.  The 
Eepublican  convention,  by  a  vote  of  439  to 
342,  adopted,  instead  of  the  report  of  the 
majority  of  the  committee  on  resolutions 
(presented  by  its  chairman,  Senator  Schurz) 

1  Schurz,  who  was  a  vice-president  of  the  National  Repub 
lican  Convention  of  1868,  moved  an  amendment  to  the  plat 
form,  which  was  adopted,  declaring  in  favor  of  "  the  removal 
of  the  disqualifications  and  restrictions  imposed  upon  the  late 
rebels  in  the  same  measure  as  the  spirit  of  disloyalty  will  die 
out,  and  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  safety  of  the  loyal 
people." 

227 


Horace  Greeley 


which  favored  the  removal  of  all  disqualifi 
cations  and  the  conferring  of  equal  political 
rights  and  privileges  on  all  classes,  a  minor 
ity  report  "in  favor  of  reenfranchising  those 
justly  disfranchised  for  participation  in  the 
late  rebellion  as  soon  as  it  can  be  done  with 
safety  to  the  State."  Thereupon  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  delegates,  headed  by 
Schurz,  left  the  convention.  The  majority 
adopted  a  resolution  heartily  approving  the 
administration  of  President  Grant,  and  nomi 
nated  a  State  ticket.  The  bolters,  with 
Schurz  in  the  chair,  also  nominated  a  State 
ticket,  headed  by  B.  Gratz  Brown  for  Gov 
ernor.  President  Grant  sided  with  the  Radi- 
cals,  and  in  a  letter  to  a  Federal  office-holder 
in  St.  Louis,  in  September,  said,  "I  regard 
the  movement  headed  by  Carl  Schurz,  Brown, 
etc.,  as  similar  to  the  Tennessee  and  Virginia 
movements,  intended  to  carry  a  portion  of  the 
Republican  party  over  to  the  Democracy,  and 
thus  give  them  control." *  Brown  was  elected 
Governor  by  41,917  majority. 

The  Central  Committee  of  the  Missouri 

1  A  report,  current  at  the  time,  and  which  has  found  a 
place  in  some  permanent  records,  that  President  Grant  refused 
to  receive  Senator  Schurz  when  he  called  at  the  White  House, 
was  without  foundation,  as  I  am  able  to  say  on  the  authority 
of  Mr.  Schurz  himself. 

228 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

Liberal  Eepublicans  adopted  a  resolution  in 
1871  declaring  that  no  citizen  should  be  de 
prived  of  a  just  share  in  the  Government;  de 
manding  the  removal  of  all  political  disabili 
ties;  saying  that  the  organization  was  un 
equivocally  hostile  to  any  tariff  which  fosters 
one  industry  or  interest  at  the  expense  of 
another;  and  calling  for  a  thorough  reform 
of  the  civil  service.  The  resolution  also  de 
clared  that  "this  committee,  believing  that  it 
has  no  power  to  disband  or  consolidate  with 
any  other  committee,  expresses  its  willing 
ness  to  call  a  State  convention  of  Liberal  Re 
publicans  to  take  into  consideration  measures 
for  the  unity  of  the  party."  As  an  outcome 
of  this  action  of  the  committee  a  call  was  is 
sued  for  a  State  convention  of  Liberal  Re 
publicans,  which  was  held  in  Jefferson  City 
on  January  24,  1872,  with  a  representation 
from  nearly  every  county.  This  convention, 
in  turn,  issued  a  call  for  a  national  conven 
tion,  to  be  held  in  Cincinnati,  on  the  first 
Monday  in  May  next,  "to  take  such  action 
as  their  convictions  of  duty  and  public  exi 
gencies  may  require."  The  platform  adopted 
declared  for  universal  amnesty  and  equal 
suffrage,  tariff  reform  "by  the  removal  of 
such  duties  as,  in  addition  to  the  yielded  reve 
nue,  increase  the  price  of  domestic  products 
229 


Horace  Greeley 


for  the  benefit  of  favored  interests,"  and  civil 
service  reform,  and  denounced  the  "packing 
of  the  Supreme  Court  to  relieve  rich  corpora 
tions,"  and  the  attempt  to  cure  the  Kuklux 
disorders,  irreligion,  or  intemperance  "by 
means  of  unconstitutional  laws." 

This  movement  for  a  national  convention 
received  some  directions  from  Washington. 
Schurz  was  occupying  his  seat  as  Senator  at 
the  time,  and  he  held  intimate  relations  with 
Charles  Sumner,  whose  quarrel  with  Presi 
dent  Grant  was  a  matter  of  national  interest. 
The  unfriendliness  of  the  Massachusetts  Sen 
ator  and  the  President,  beginning,  perhaps, 
when  Sumner  was  obliged,  on  constitutional 
grounds,  to  oppose  the  confirmation  of  A.  T. 
Stewart,  Grant's  first  nominee  for  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  grew  into  charges  and 
countercharges  of  great  bitterness  while  the 
Santo  Domingo  treaty  was  under  discus 
sion,  and  the  President  gave  Sumner  the 
chief  credit  for  the  defeat  of  that  measure. 
Motley's  recall  from  England  was  the  Presi 
dent's  first  act  of  retaliation.  In  the  fol 
lowing  December  the  President  proposed  the 
annexation  of  Santo  Domingo  in  the  same 
way  that  Texas  had  been  annexed  as  a  State, 
and  Sumner  again  led  the  opposition,  select 
ing  words  that  were  especially  irritating  to 
230 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

the  executive,  and  charging  him  with  trying 
to  remove  three  antitreaty  members  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Eelations.  The  publi 
cation  of  the  Motley  correspondence,  in  Jan 
uary,  1871,  put  an  end  to  all  cooperation  be 
tween  the  State  Department  and  the  Commit 
tee  on  Foreign  Eelations.  The  Alabama  High 
Joint  Commission  began  its  sessions  in 
Washington  in  February,  and  in  March, 
when  the  new  Congress  met,  the  Senate  com 
mittee  was  reorganized,  and,  in  accordance 
with  the  President's  wishes,  Sumner  was 
dropped  as  chairman. 

From  that  time  Sumner  was  an  out 
spoken  opponent  of  Grant's  renomination, 
and  so  bitter  a  critic  that  he  was  persuaded 
by  his  friends  to  withhold  from  publica 
tion  an  arraignment  of  Grant  which  he  pre 
pared;  he  circulated  it  privately,  however. 
Early  in  1871  he  offered  in  the  Senate  a  reso 
lution  to  amend  the  Federal  Constitution  so 
that  a  President  could  serve  but  a  single  term, 
and  he  and  others  who  objected  to  Grant's 
reelection  discussed  the  steps  necessary  to 
defeat  him,  and  had  a  share  in  shaping  the 
Missouri  movement.  After  the  nomination 
of  the  Greeley  ticket,  and  a  few  days  before 
Grant's  renomination,  Sumner  made  a  bitter 
speech  in  the  Senate,  of  which  he  said,  as  he 
231 


Horace  Greeley 


left  the  Capitol,  "I  have  to-day  made  the 
renomination  of  Grant  impossible,"  and 
throughout  the  campaign  he  refused  to  be 
lieve  that  the  Grant  ticket  would  win.1 

In  1871  and  1872  the  tariff  question  was 
causing  the  Republicans  a  great  deal  of  anx 
iety.  So  firm  a  defender  of  protection  as 
Senator  Morrill  had  declared  in  1870  that  "it 
is  a  mistake  for  the  friends  of  a  sound  tariff 
to  insist  on  the  extreme  rates  imposed  during 
the  war,  if  less  will  raise  the  necessary  reve 
nue."  A  bill  prepared  by  David  A.  Wells, 
Special  Commissioner  of  the  Eevenue,  in 
1867,  reducing  duties  on  raw  material,  had 
passed  the  Senate  by  a  large  majority,  and 
received  a  vote  of  106  to  64  in  its  favor  in 
the  House,  but  failed  there  because  a  two- 
thirds  majority  was  necessary  to  reach  it  un 
der  a  suspension  of  the  rules.  The  subject 
came  up  again  in  1870,  when  Garfield,  in  the 
House,  warned  his  protectionist  friends  that, 
unless  they  revised  the  tariff  "prudently  and 
wisely  "  they  would  have  to  submit  to  a  re 
duction  that  would  "shock,  if  not  shatter,  all 
our  protected  industries."  Congress  in  that 
year  passed  a  tariff  bill,  but  it  did  not  satisfy 

1 1  am  assured  on  the  most  competent  authority  that  the 
published  statement  that  Sumner  expected  that  he  would  be 
nominated  for  President  at  Cincinnati  is  unfounded. 

232 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

the  revenue  reformers,  since,  while  reducing 
the  duty  on  pig  iron  from  $9  to  $7  a  ton,  it 
increased  the  duty  on  steel  rails,  nickel,  flax, 
and  marble. 

The  removal  of  Mr.  Wells  from  his  of 
fice  was  accepted  as  an  affront  both  to 
tariff  reform  and  to  civil  service  reform.  The 
urgency  of  the  demand  for  relief  from  tariff 
burdens  was  shown  by  a  letter  from  a  Re 
publican  observer  in  Washington,  printed  in 
the  Tribune  in  March,  1871,  advocating  "a 
carefully  revised  tariff  bill "  so  wisely  drawn 
"that  it  will  permit  the  party  to  escape  a 
split  on  this  question  in  the  coming  presi 
dential  campaign."  Hubbard,  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  on  March  27,  1871,  moved  in  the  House 
that  the  tariff  should  be  so  reformed  as  to  be 
"  a  tax  for  revenue  only,  and  not  for  the  pro 
tection  of  class  interests  at  the  general  ex 
pense."  A  motion  to  table  this  resolution 
was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  2  yeas  to  154  nays, 
and  it  was  referred  to  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee.  The  House,  at  this  session, 
passed  a  bill  placing  salt  and  coal  on  the  free 
list,  and  to  these,  at  the  instance  of  the  Penn- 
sylvanians,  added  tea  and  coffee;  but  these 
measures  did  not  pass  the  Senate. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  tariff  declara 
tion  of  the  Missouri  Liberal  Republicans  ap- 
233 


Horace  Greeley 


pealed  to  the  sympathies  of  a  large  number 
of  other  Republicans. 

The  Tribune  of  March  30,  1872,  published 
a  letter  signed  by  several  New  York  Republic 
ans,  addressed  to  the  chairman  of  the  execu 
tive  committee  of  the  Liberal  Republicans  of 
Missouri,  expressing  their  concurrence  in  the 
principles  set  forth  by  the  Jefferson  City 
convention,  which,  as  regards  the  tariff,  they 
interpreted  to  mean  that  "Federal  taxes 
should  be  imposed  for  revenue,  and  should 
be  so  adjusted  as  to  make  the  burden  upon 
the  industries  of  the  country  as  light  as  pos 
sible,"  hoping  that  the  movement  begun  there 
would  spread  through  all  the  States,  and  in 
viting  all  Republicans  of  New  York  who 
agreed  with  them  to  cooperate.  Greeley  was 
the  second  signer  of  this  letter.  The  Tribune 
had  said,  on  March  16,  "Of  course,  we  shall 
ask  to  be  counted  out  [of  the  Liberal  move 
ment]  if  the  majority  shall  decide  to  make 
free  trade  a  plank  in  their  platform,"  and 
it  explained  on  April  4,  "In  signing  the 
letter  to  Colonel  Grosvenor,  we  simply  indi 
cated  our  approval  of  the  Cincinnati  move 
ment,  not  of  every  phase  embodied  in  that 
letter." 

The  Liberal  movement  received  encour 
agement  in  all  the  States,  and  on  May  1  six 
234 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

hundred  and  fourteen  delegates  assembled  in 
convention  in  Cincinnati.  Meeting  as  they 
did  without  previous  organization,  they  were 
largely  at  sea  both  as  regards  the  form  of 
the  platform  and  the  candidate.  Charles 
Francis  Adams  was  the  preference  of  the 
radical  civil  service  and  tariff  reformers. 
Illinois  was  divided  between  Senator  Trum- 
bull  and  Judge  David  Davis,  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court.1  Governor  Brown 
was  the  favorite  of  most  of  the  Missouri  dele 
gates,  and  Pennsylvania  was  ready  to  vote 
for  Curtin.  Horace  Greeley  was  supported 
by  sixty-six  of  the  sixty-eight  New  York  dele 
gates.  How  to  nominate  him  on  a  platform 
in  line  with  the  declarations  of  the  Jefferson 
City  platform  was  a  problem  even  to  his 
friends.  The  Missourians  held  that  Brown 
was  the  logical  leader  of  a  movement  which, 
they  said,  originated  in  his  State  and  had 
made  him  Governor. 

In  their  earlier  despatches,  as  the  dele 
gates  were  gathering,  neither  the  Sun  nor  the 
Times  correspondent  considered  Greeley's 

1  A  Labor  Reform  National  Convention,  at  Columbus,  Ohio, 
on  February  21  (twelve  States  being  represented),  had  nomi 
nated  Judge  Davis  for  President.  He  declined  the  nomination 
on  June  28  on  the  ground  that  he  had  consented  to  the  use  of 
his  name  in  the  Liberal  Republican  Convention. 

235 


Horace  Greeley 


nomination  a  possibility,  and  both  made  pre 
dictions  of  the  disposition  of  his  vote  after 
the  first  "complimentary  "  ballot.  E.  L.  God- 
kin,  in  his  letter  to  the  Nation  reviewing 
the  convention  (which  he  attended),  said: 
"Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Greeley's  nomina 
tion  was  generally  regarded  as  impossible. 
I  think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  nobody  out 
side  the  circle  of  his  immediate  supporters 
treated  it  as  a  serious  probability.  Men 
laughed  when  his  name  was  spoken  of;  all 
said  he  ought  to  have  a  good  complimentary 
vote;  but  nearly  everybody  talked  of  his  se 
lection  for  the  presidency  by  the  convention 
as  an  utterly  ludicrous  thing,  which  would 
cover  the  proceedings  with  ridicule  and  con 
tempt.  What  was  feared  by  the  reformers 
was  not  this,  but  some  '  sinful  game '  on  the 
part  of  the  politicians  which  would  defeat 
Adams  and  deprive  the  movement  of  all 
weight  and  significance." 

To  Adams  objection  was  made  that  he  had 
not  been  identified  with  the  Liberal  move 
ment;  that  he  was  "cold-blooded,"  and  would 
arouse  no  enthusiasm  in  the  West,  and  that 
his  relations  with  Sumner  would  drive  the 
latter  back  to  Grant  if  Adams  was  nomi 
nated.  That  Adams  was  not  a  "practical  pol 
itician  "  was  shown  by  the  publication,  on 
236 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

April  25,  of  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to 
David  A.  Wells,  in  which  he  said : 

"I  do  not  want  the  nomination,  and  could 
only  be  induced  to  consider  it  by  the  circum 
stances  under  which  it  might  possibly  be 
made.  If  the  call  upon  me  were  an  unequiv 
ocal  one,  based  upon  confidence  in  my  char 
acter,  earned  in  public  life,  and  a  belief  that 
I  would  carry  out  in  practise  the  principles 
that  I  professed,  then  indeed  would  come  a 
test  of  my  courage  in  an  emergency ;  but  if  I 
am  to  be  negotiated  for,  and  have  assurances 
given  that  I  am  honest,  you  will  be  so  kind 
as  to  withdraw  me  out  of  that  crowd.  ...  If 
the  good  people  who  meet  at  Cincinnati  sin 
cerely  believe  that  they  need  such  an  anoma 
lous  being  as  I  am  (which  I  do  not),  they 
must  express  it  in  a  manner  to  convince  me 
of  it,  or  all  their  labor  will  be  thrown  away." 

The  Tribune  was  quick  to  make  use  of 
this  letter.  Its  Cincinnati  despatch  the  next 
day  said  that  it  had  created  a  flutter;  "the 
Missouri  and  Kansas  delegates  say  it  ruins 
his  [Adams's]  prospects  for  the  nomination 
here."  Its  despatch  dated  April  26  said  that, 
according  to  a  leading  Pennsylvanian,  the 
delegation  from  that  State  indicated  a  will 
ingness  to  sustain  Greeley,  "whose  presence 
on  the  ticket  should  be  a  guaranty  to  the 
237 


Horace  Greeley 


country  of  the  dignity  and  power  of  the  re 
form  movement ;  he  would,  they  argue,  carry 
an  overwhelming  Republican  vote,  and  ren 
der  the  work  of  the  Philadelphia  gathering 
[the  National  Republican  Convention]  use 
less.  They  are  equally  frank  in  their  repug 
nance  to  Charles  Francis  Adams,  whose  let 
ter  is  regarded  as  frivolous  and  undignified. 
He  is  accused  of  courting  administration 
bounty  by  his  careless,  or  as  they  term  it, 
slighting  allusion  to  the  Liberal  convention. 
It  is  claimed  that  Adams  has  lost  the  chance 
he  had  last  week,  through  the  earnest  sym 
pathy  and  support  extended  to  him  by  the 
World  and  August  Belmont."  On  April  28 
its  correspondent  telegraphed,  "The  loudest 
talking  is  for  Davis,  the  strongest  for  Ad 
ams,  the  most  boastful  for  Brown,  while  the 
friends  of  Trumbull  and  Cox  counsel  quiet 
ly."  The  next  day  its  advices  from  the  same 
source  were,  "There. is  much  talk  about  Hor 
ace  Greeley,  but  his  friends  are  not  making 
any  vehement  contest  for  him.  Their  policy, 
so  far  as  they  can  be  said  to  have  one,  ap 
pears  to  be  that  of  awaiting  events ;  they  be 
lieve  their  favorite  to  be  the  second  choice, 
in  a  large  measure,  of  both  the  Adams  and 
Davis  men."  Editorially,  at  the  same  time, 
the  Tribune  said:  "The  Tribune  has  no  can- 
238 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

didate;  it  asks  for  no  particular  man;  but  it 
does  ask  the  choice  of  some  man  whose  name 
should  symbolize  the  national  movement  for 
reform." 

The  position  of  Illinois  in  the  convention 
was  an  important  one.  It  was  represented 
by  forty-two  delegates,  and  the  supporters  of 
Trumbull  and  Davis  were  stubbornly  antag 
onistic.  The  anti- Adams  feeling  among  some 
of  these  delegates  was  very  strong,  and  they 
were  quoted  as  saying,  after  the  publication 
of  his  letter  to  Wells,  that  Grant  would  carry 
their  State  against  Adams  by  50,000  major 
ity.  As  events  proved,  this  feeling  caused 
Adams's  defeat. 

The  convention  organized  with  Senator 
Schurz  in  the  chair.  Two  days  were  devoted 
to  preliminary  matters,  and  on  Friday,  May 
3,  the  platform  was  adopted  and  the  ballot 
ing  for  candidates  took  place.  The  platform, 
reported  by  Horace  White,  editor  of  the  Chi 
cago  Tribune,  opened  with  an  address  char 
ging  the  Grant  administration  with  corrup 
tion,  and  the  President  with  using  his  official 
position  for  personal  ends,  keeping  corrupt 
men  in  public  places,  and  being  unequal  to 
the  duties  of  his  office,  and  declaring  that  a 
party  "thus  led  and  controlled  can  no  longer 
be  of  service  to  the  best  interests  of  the  re- 
239 


Horace  Greeley 

public."  The  resolutions  demanded  the  im 
mediate  removal  of  all  disabilities  imposed 
for  participation  in  the  rebellion,  a  thorough 
reform  of  the  civil  service,  the  maintenance 
of  the  public  credit  and  a  speedy  return  to 
specie  payments,  and  opposed  further  land- 
grants  to  railroads.  On  the  question  of  the 
tariff  it  declared  as  follows: 

"Seventh.  We  demand  a  system  of  Fed 
eral  taxation  which  shall  not  unnecessarily 
interfere  with  the  industries  of  the  people, 
and  which  shall  provide  the  means  necessary 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  Government,  eco 
nomically  administered,  the  pensions,  the  in 
terest  on  the  public  debt,  and  a  moderate 
annual  reduction  of  the  principal  thereof; 
and,  recognizing  that  there  are  in  our  midst 
honest  but  irreconcilable  differences  of  opin 
ion  with  regard  to  the  respective  systems  of 
protection  and  free  trade,  we  remit  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  subject  to  the  people  in  their 
Congressional  districts,  and  to  the  decision 
of  Congress  thereon,  wholly  free  from  execu 
tive  interference  or  dictation." 

The  delegates  were  still  "at  sea"  as  re 
gards  the  head  of  their  ticket.    On  the  pre 
ceding  night  the   New   York   Times   corre 
spondent,  who  the  day  before  had  insisted 
240 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

that  Greeley  stood  no  chance  of  the  nomina 
tion,  reported  no  change,  except  that  Greeley 
and  Trumbull  were  "a  little  stronger";  and 
the  Sun  correspondent  noted  a  belief  that 
Adams  was  the  coming  man.  The  most  influ 
ential  Adams  men  thought  that  he  would  be 
nominated  without  difficulty. 

On  Thursday  morning  it  was  rumored  in 
convention  circles  that  B.  Gratz  Brown  and 
Frank  Blair  were  on  their  way  to  Cincinnati, 
and  they  arrived  that  evening.  It  had  been 
stated  from  the  time  the  delegates  began  to 
arrive  that  Brown  would  not  attend  the  con 
vention,  and  different  reasons  have  been  as 
signed  for  his  change  of  purpose.  One 
writer1  found  his  motive  in  jealousy  of  the 
growing  influence  of  Schurz  in  the  Liberal 
ranks,  indicated  by  the  selection  of  the  Mis 
souri  Senator  for  chairman  of  the  conven 
tion.  But  Schurz  was  already  a  member  of 
the  upper  house  of  Congress,  and,  as  a  for 
eign-born  citizen,  could  not  receive  the  nomi 
nation  for  President.  Moreover,  Brown 
could  easily  have  ascertained  that  Schurz  ad 
vised  against  his  own  selection  as  chairman, 
both  because  he  thought  he  could  be  more 
useful  on  the  floor,  and  because  it  was  his 

1  Cincinnati  correspondence  of  the  Nation  of  May  9, 1872. 

«  241 


Horace  Greeley 


opinion  that  a  native-born  Bepublican  should 
preside;  and  that  he  consented  to  take  the 
place  only  when  assured  that,  if  he  did  not, 
it  would  go  to  a  man  who  was  radically  ob 
jectionable  to  the  entire  intelligent  reform 
sentiment  of  the  movement.  The  real  ex 
planation  of  the  Blair-Brown  scheme  in  favor 
of  Greeley  is  rather  to  be  sought  in  the  long 
time  political  enmity  of  the  Blair  and  Adams 
families. 

When  the  balloting  began,  only  vague  ru 
mors  of  the  Brown  program  had  reached  a 
majority  of  the  delegates,  and  very  many  of 
them  were  ignorant  of  the  light  in  which  it 
was  regarded  by  their  chairman.  The  first 
ballot  resulted  as  follows: 


Brown 95 

Curtin 62 

Chase 2 


Greeley 147 

Adams 205 

Trumbull 110 

Davis 92^ 

This  vote  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Adams  supporters,  but  evidence  of  the 
Brown-Greeley  deal  was  supplied  at  once. 
As  soon  as  the  result  was  announced  the 
chairman,  reading  from  a  slip  of  paper  which 
he  held  in  his  hand,  informed  the  convention 
that  a  gentleman  who  had  just  received  a 
large  number  of  votes  desired  to  make  a  com 
munication,  and  Governor  Brown  ascended 
242 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

the  platform.  In  his  remarks  he  not  only 
stated  his  own  withdrawal,  but  urged  the 
nomination  of  Greeley.  The  Missouri  dele 
gation  at  once  retired  for  consultation,  dur 
ing  which  Schurz  made  a  vigorous  plea 
against  handing  over  to  Greeley  their  vote. 
In  the  first  ballot  Missouri  had  given  Brown 
30  votes  and  Trumbull  3.  In  the  second 
ballot  it  gave  Greeley  10,  Trumbull  16,  and 
Adams  4.  In  the  fifth  ballot  it  increased  the 
vote  for  Greeley  to  18,  giving  Trumbull  8  and 
Adams  4,  and  the  total  of  this  ballot  gave 
Adams  309,  and  Greeley  258.  Adams's  sup 
porters  now  counted  on  his  nomination  as  a 
certainty  on  the  next  ballot,  believing  that 
the  Trumbull  vote  (of  91)  would  be  cast  for 
him. 

The  Illinois  delegates  were  absent  in  con 
ference  when  the  sixth  ballot  was  ordered, 
and  the  Greeley  men  began  a  noisy  effort  to 
start  a  stampede  for  their  favorite.  The  dele 
gates  generally  were  in  a  nervous  state,  not 
understanding  clearly  how  the  wires  were 
being  pulled  by  the  skilled  manipulators,  nor 
what  the  wishes  of  the  most  trusted  leaders 
were;  and  had  one  of  the  latter  taken  the 
floor  (as  was  suggested  but  not  done),  and 
moved  the  nomination  of  Adams  by  acclama 
tion,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  convention 
243 


Horace  Greeley 


would  have  so  decreed.  The  Greeley  sup 
porters  received  unexpected  aid  when  the 
vote  of  Illinois  was  announced,  as  it  gave 
Greeley  14  and  Adams  only  27.  This  marked 
the  beginning  of  the  end.  The  Greeley  hur 
rah  was  kept  up,  votes  were  changed  so  rap 
idly  and  amid  so  much  confusion  that  the 
secretaries  could  not  keep  accurate  register 
of  them,  and  the  chairman,  unable  to  recog 
nize  any  one,  had  to  suggest  that  the  changes 
be  handed  up  in  writing.  When  at  last  the 
announcement  of  the  ballot  was  made,  it  gave 
Greeley  482  and  Adams  187.  Greeley  was 
the  nominee  of  the  convention,  with  Brown 
for  Vice-President.  "When  the  call  for  a 
unanimous  vote  came,"  said  the  Tribune's  re 
port,  "the  element  known  as  Free  Trade  and 
Eevenue  Keform  manifested  a  disposition  to 
mar  the  enthusiasm  by  dogged  silence,  and 
an  indignant  and  unanimous  nay." 

When  the  country  heard  of  this  result,  it 
taxed  public  credulity.  Greeley's  nomination 
by  these  tariff  reformers  and  civil  service  re 
formers  seemed  like  an  impossibility.  At  the 
Union  League  Club  in  New  York  city  mem 
bers  individually  predicted  that  the  candi 
date  would  decline  the  honor,  but  Greeley 
had  no  such  intention.  How  could  it  seem  to 
him  otherwise  than  that  the  gratification  of 
244 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

an  ambition  unsatisfied  for  years  had  come 
at  last?  Weed  might  consider  him  no  politi 
cian;  Seward  might  overlook  him  in  the  ap 
portionment  of  nominations  and  appoint 
ments  ;  Lincoln  might  reject  his  advice.  But 
now  a  great  movement  of  the  people  in  favor 
of  that  honest  government  and  universal  am 
nesty  for  which  he  had  so  long  been  pleading, 
and  on  account  of  which  he  had  made  so  seri 
ous  sacrifices,  had  called  on  him  to  be  its 
leader.  Never  satisfied  with  the  position  and 
influence  he  had  gained  by  means  of  his  edi 
torial  pen,  he  now  saw  within  his  reach  the 
great  office  which  would  bestow  upon  him  an 
honor  that  would  gratify  his  pride,  and  give 
him  an  opportunity  to  demonstrate  those  ad 
ministrative  qualities  which  he  had  been  made 
to  feel  that  others  doubted.  During  the  ses 
sions  of  the  convention  he  had  been  occupy 
ing  a  room  in  a  hotel  near  the  Tribune  office 
in  order  to  be  in  close  touch  with  the  conven 
tion.  When  the  result  of  the  final  ballot  was 
made  known  to  him  he  received  the  news  with 
a  smiling  countenance,  and  telegraphed  at 
once,  instructing  his  representatives  in  Cin 
cinnati  to  tender  to  the  convention  his  "grate 
ful  acknowledgment  for  the  generous  confi 
dence  "  they  had  shown  in  him,  adding,  "I 
shall  endeavor  to  deserve  it." 
245 


Horace  Greeley 


But  tariff  reform!  Greeley  was  ready  to 
accept  the  platform.  To  a  reporter  who 
asked  him  that  evening,  "If  the  people  elect 
a  majority  of  Congressmen  in  favor  of  a 
repeal  of  the  tariff  bill,  and  Congress 
repeals  that  bill,  what  would  be  the  duty 
of  the  next  President  of  the  United  States  1 " 
Greeley  replied,  "It  would  be  his  duty  to 
sign  the  bill  passed  by  Congress."  "If 
you  are  elected  President,"  again  asked  the 
reporter,  "will  you  sign  such  a  bill  if  Con 
gress  passes  it?"  Greeley  replied,  "I  cer 
tainly  will." 

Greeley  formally  accepted  the  nomination 
in  due  order,  and,  on  May  15,  printed  a  card 
in  the  Tribune  announcing  that,  from  that 
date,  he  had  "withdrawn  absolutely  from  the 
conduct  of  the  Tribune  and  would  hence 
forth,  until  further  notice,  exercise  no  con 
trol  or  supervision  over  its  columns." 

Although  Greeley  and  his  personal  fol 
lowers  did  not  realize  it,  the  disintegration 
of  the  body  that  nominated  him  began  with 
the  declaration  of  the  final  ballot.  This  was 
indicated  by  the  press  comments.  The  Na 
tion,  which  spoke  for  the  supporters  of  the 
Liberal  movement  who  considered  Adams  the 
type  of  candidate  to  represent  them,  and  who 
could  not  be  allured  from  revenue  and  civil 
246 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

service  reform,  repudiated  the  Cincinnati 
ticket  at  once,  saying,  "The  convention  has 
offered  us  a  candidate  of  undoubted  personal 
honesty,  who  is,  and  has  long  been,  associ 
ated  intimately  with  the  worst  set  of  politi 
cians  the  State  contains — excepting  the  Tam 
many  ring — whose  supporters  at  the  conven 
tion  included  some  of  the  worst  political 
trash  to  be  found  anywhere,  who  would,  in 
all  possibility  be  followed  by  them  to  Wash 
ington,  and  who,  if  left  in  their  hands  there, 
would  set  up  the  most  corrupt  administration 
ever  seen,  and  that  from  which  least  might 
be  expected  in  the  way  of  administrative  re 
form;  who  is  not  more  remarkable  for  his 
generosity  and  kindheartedness  than  for  the 
facility  with  which  he  is  duped,  and  not  more 
remarkable  for  his  hatred  of  knavery  than 
for  the  difficulty  he  has  in  telling  whether  a 
man  is  a  knave  or  not."  The  New  York  Even 
ing  Post,1  which  would  have  supported  Ad 
ams  with  enthusiasm,  rejected  Greeley  with 

1  A  conference  of  Republicans  opposed  to  Grant's  adminis 
tration  and  not  satisfied  with  Greeley  was  held,  at  the  invi 
tation  of  Carl  Schurz,  J.  D.  Cox,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  Os 
wald  Ottendorfer,  David  A.  Wells,  and  J.  Brinkerhoff,  at  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  in  New  York,  on  June  20,  and  William 
S.  Groesbeck,  of  Ohio,  was  nominated  for  President,  and  Fred 
erick  Law  Olmstead  for  Vice-President.  But  there  the  matter 
ended.  Schurz  later  made  speeches  for  Greeley. 

247 


Horace  Greeley 


scorn,  Mr.  Bryant  writing  the  editorial  which 
stated  "Why  Mr.  Greeley  should  not  be  sup 
ported  for  the  Presidency,"  the  reasons  being 
his  lack  of  courage,  firmness,  and  consist 
ency;  his  bad  political  associations  (espe 
cially  his  alliance  with  Senator  Fenton) ;  his 
want  of  settled  political  convictions,  except 
on  the  subject  of  the  tariff,  and  "the  gross- 
ness  of  his  manners." 

But  to  the  candidate,  and  perhaps  to  his 
campaign  managers,  all  this  objection  seemed 
trivial  after  his  acceptance,  on  the  Cincinnati 
platform,  by  the  Democratic  National  Con 
vention  on  the  ninth  of  July.  To  one  of  his 
associate  editors  who  announced  to  him  his 
nomination  by  the  Democratic  convention  he 
remarked,  "I  shall  carry  every  Southern 
State  but  South  Carolina.  That  they  will 
steal  from  me." 

Naturally,  there  was  considerable  appre 
hension  on  the  part  of  the  Republicans  when 
the  campaign  opened.  If  Greeley  could  poll 
the  Democratic  vote,  the  addition  of  not  a 
very  large  number  of  Republicans  would  se 
cure  for  him  several  important  States.  In 
1872  Maine  held  her  State  election  in  Septem 
ber,  and  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana 
held  theirs  in  October.  To  these  States  the 
whole  country  looked  for  the  first  indication 
248 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

of  public  sentiment  on  the  new  alinement. 
Maine  responded  with  a  Republican  majority 
of  a  little  over  17,000.  The  Tribune,  to  make 
the  best  of  this,  estimated  the  reduction  of 
the  previous  Republican  majority  in  the 
State  by  the  Liberal  movement  at  5  per  cent, 
and  said,  "The  lesson,  then,  of  the  Maine 
election  is  plain.  It  reveals  a  percentage  of 
change  which,  with  proper  organization  and 
work,  gives  us  Pennsylvania  and  Indiana  in 
October.  After  these,  the  battle  wins  itself." 
When,  in  October,  Pennsylvania  gave  a  Re 
publican  majority  of  40,443,  and  Ohio  a  Re 
publican  majority  of  14,150,  while  Indiana 
gave  Hendricks,  the  Democratic-Liberal, 
1,148  majority,  the  Tribune  counted  178  elec 
toral  votes  for  Greeley,  119  for  Grant,  and  69 
in  doubt,  and  said,  "This  leaves  us  but  6 
votes  to  win  from  the  doubtful  States;  it 
leaves  Grant  65.  On  that  showing,  who  can 
doubt  which  side  the  chances  lie?  Courage, 
friends.  The  enemy  have  done  their  worst. 
We  have  wrested  Indiana  from  their  grasp; 
the  way  to  final  victory  is  clear." 

This  sort  of  journalism  was  more  in  vogue 
thirty  years  ago  than  it  is  now,  but  even  then 
it  really  deceived  no  one  but  Greeley.  He, 
up  to  the  announcement  of  the  result,  seemed 
to  have  no  doubt  of  his  election,  and  to  deem 
249 


Horace  Greeley 


himself  thousands  of  votes  stronger  in  these 
States  than  were  the  State  candidates.  The 
managers  of  the  Liberal  canvass  early  real 
ized  the  trend  of  public  opinion,  and  they  de 
cided  that  Greeley  should  set  out  on  a  speech- 
making  tour.  Starting  on  September  18,  he 
spoke  in  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  on  his  way 
to  Cincinnati,  where  he  made  two  elaborate 
addresses.  On  the  return  trip  he  spoke  in 
Kentucky  and  Indiana,  and  again  in  Ohio 
and  Pennsylvania.  He  presented  himself  as 
the  champion  of  universal  amnesty,  and  was 
cheered  and  encouraged  by  the  friendly  re 
ception  which  he  everywhere  received. 

The  Eepublican  campaign  managers,  of 
whom  perhaps  Senator  Roscoe  Conkling  was 
the  leader,  made  the  attacks  on  President 
Grant  their  keynote,  defending  the  purity  of 
his  personal  character  and  motives,  and  hold 
ing  up  Greeley  as  weakly  inconsistent  when 
seeking  the  presidency  on  a  platform  adopt 
ed  by  revenue  reformers,  and  as  the  candi 
date,  not  only  of  discontented  Eepublicans, 
but  of  his  lifelong  opponents,  the  Democrats. 
In  no  presidential  campaign  did  the  cartoon 
ists  ever  take  so  large  a  part.  Greeley  was 
a  good  subject  for  their  witty  pencils,  and 
they  dealt  him  some  effective  blows;  for  a 
really  telling  cartoon  can  carry  home  an  ar- 
250 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

gument  more  forcibly  and  instantly  than  the 
most  carefully  prepared  address. 

When  the  November  returns  came  in, 
Greeley  found  that  he  was  the  most  thor 
oughly  beaten  candidate,  so  far  as  the  elec 
toral  vote  was  concerned,  who  had  ever  run 
for  President  of  the  United  States.  Georgia, 
Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  Tennessee, 
and  Texas  alone  gave  him  their  votes.  Penn 
sylvania,  which  had  given  the  Eepublican 
candidate  for  judge  40,443  majority  in  Oc 
tober,  gave  Grant  137,548;  Ohio  increased 
her  October  Republican  majority  of  14,150  to 
37,531;  and  Indiana  changed  the  small  Lib 
eral-Democratic  majority  to  a  Eepublican 
majority  of  22,515.  Greeley's  own  State  gave 
a  majority  of  53,456  against  him,  and  the 
majority  for  Grant  in  the  whole  country  was 
762,991. 

Many  things  contributed  to  this  result. 
There  are  prominent  participants  in  the  Lib 
eral  movement  of  1872  still  living  who  think 
that,  if  Adams  had  been  the  choice  of  the 
Cincinnati  convention,  he  would  have  been 
elected.  Adams  would  have  retained  the  sup 
port  of  a  good  many  earnest  and  consistent 
reformers  who  could  not  vote  for  Greeley, 
and  he  would  probably  have  proved  less  dis 
tasteful  to  Democrats  than  Greeley  was 
251 


Horace  Greeley 


found  to  be.  But  all  such  calculations  have 
to  reckon  with  U.  S.  Grant.  Unfortunate 
as  he  was  in  many  of  the  incidents  of  his 
first  term  administration,  in  the  popular  eye 
he  was  the  general  whose  persistency  and 
faith  in  the  final  result — whose  generalship 
— had  crushed  the  rebellion.  He  might  lack 
experience  in  choosing  civil  officers.  He 
might  stand  up  too  firmly  for  his  friends. 
He  might  give  Federal  support  to  unworthy 
Republicans  in  the  South.  He  might,  in  a 
word,  be  attacked  on  this  ground  and  on  that. 
But  so  had  been  the  early  fathers  of  the  re 
public,  whose  names  were  now  enshrined  in 
the  list  of  national  heroes.  To  elect  Greeley, 
to  elect  Adams,  it  was  necessary  to  defeat 
Grant,  and  that  was  as  hard  a  task  in  civil  as 
in  military  movements. 

Greeley  counted  on  the  support  of  that 
large  body  of  men  whom  he  had  so  long  ad 
dressed  with  his  pen,  and  especially  of  the 
agricultural  classes.  But  he  had  been  ad 
dressing  these  men  in  defense  of  principles 
which  had,  for  almost  twenty  years,  been 
identical  with  the  Republican  party.  The 
men  who  admired  him  as  the  opponent  of 
slavery  extension,  as  the  defender  of  home 
productions,  as  the  teacher  of  temperance, 
as  the  spokesman  for  the  farmer,  had  fol- 
252 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

lowed  his  lead  for  many  years  as  the  most 
influential  Republican  editor  of  the  country. 
The  war  feeling  was  by  no  means  extin 
guished.  Distrust  of  the  South  had  not  yet 
disappeared.  It  was  counting  on  a  great  un 
certainty,  therefore,  for  Greeley  to  expect  to 
lead  out  of  his  old  party's  ranks,  in  1872,  the 
body  of  Eepublicans  who  had  taken  their  po 
litical  instruction  from  his  pen.  The  task 
would  have  been  an  easier  one  before  the 
war.  But,  while  Greeley's  electoral  vote  was 
small,  his  popular  vote  reached  2,834,079, 
and  this  was  large  enough  to  account  for  the 
continued  devotion  of  all  his  strictly  personal 
following. 

The  Tribune,  on  November  7,  printed  a 
card  from  Greeley  announcing  his  resump 
tion  of  the  editorship  "which  he  relinquished 
on  embarking  in  another  line  of  business  six 
months  ago,"  and  saying  that  it  would  be  his 
effort  to  make  the  paper  "a  thoroughly  inde 
pendent  journal,  treating  all  parties  and  po 
litical  movements  with  judicial  fairness  and 
candor,  but  courting  the  favor  and  depreca 
ting  the  wrath  of  no  one."  He  would  gladly 
say  anything  he  could  to  unite  the  whole  peo 
ple  on  a  platform  of  universal  amnesty  and 
impartial  suffrage,  but  for  the  present  he 
could  do  most  for  that  end  by  silence.  As  he 
253 


Horace  Greeley 


would  never  again  be  a  candidate  for  office,  he 
would  give  more  regard  to  science,  industry, 
and  the  useful  arts,  and  would  "not  be  pro 
voked  to  indulgence  in  those  bitter  person 
alities  which  are  the  recognized  bane  of  jour 
nalism." 

This  same  issue  of  the  Tribune  contained 
a  remarkable  editorial  headed  Crumbs  of 
Comfort.  In  this  it  was  set  forth  that  for 
twelve  years  the  Tribune  had  been  supposed 
to  keep  "for  the  benefit  of  the  idle  and  inca 
pable  a  sort  of  Federal  employment  agency. 
.  .  .  Any  man  who  had  ever  voted  the  Re 
publican  ticket  believed  that  it  was  the  duty 
and  the  privilege  of  the  editor  of  this  paper 
to  get  him  a  place  in  the  custom-house. 
Every  red-nosed  politician  who  had  cheated 
at  the  caucus  and  fought  at  the  polls  looked 
to  the  editor  of  the  Tribune  to  secure  him  ap 
pointment  as  gager,  or  as  army  chaplain,  or 
as  minister  to  France.  ...  It  is  a  source  of 
profound  satisfaction  to  us  that  office-seek 
ers  will  keep  aloof  from  a  defeated  candidate 
who  has  not  influence  enough  at  Washington 
or  at  Albany  to  get  a  sweeper  appointed  un 
der  the  sergeant-at-arms,  or  a  deputy  sub- 
assistant  temporary  clerk  into  the  paste-pot 
section  of  the  folding-room.  At  last  we  shall 
be  let  alone  to  mind  our  own  affairs  and  man- 
254 


Greeley's  Presidential  Campaign 

age  our  own  newspaper,  without  being  called 
aside  every  hour  to  help  lazy  people  whom 
we  don't  know,  and  to  spend  our  strength  in 
efforts  that  only  benefit  people  who  don't  de 
serve  assistance.  At  last  we  shall  keep  our 
office  clear  of  blatherskites  and  political  beg 
gars." 

Such  a  declaration  could  not  fail  to  give 
pain  to  the  venerable  editor  of  the  Trib 
une  for  more  reasons  than  one.  It  pictured 
his  editorial  room  as  a  sort  of  office-broker 
age  shop;  it  offended  many  of  his  friends 
who  might  consider  themselves  classed 
among  the  "red-nosed";  it  counted  him  out 
of  the  list  of  future  political  advisers.  His 
action  was  characteristic.  As  soon  as  he  read 
the  article  he  penned  the  following,  and  sent 
it  up  to  the  composing-room:  "By  some 
unaccountable  fatality,  an  article  entitled 
Crumbs  of  Comfort  crept  into  our  last,  un 
seen  by  the  editor,  which  does  him  the  gross 
est  wrong.  It  is  true  that  office-seekers  used 
to  pester  him  for  recommendations  when  his 
friends  controlled  the  custom-house,  though 
the  '  red-nosed '  variety  were  seldom  found 
among  them;  it  is  not  true  that  he  ever 
obeyed  a  summons  to  Washington  in  order 
that  he  might  promote  or  oppose  legislation 
in  favor  of  this  or  that  private  scheme.  In 
255 


Horace  Greeley 


short,  the  article  is  a  monstrous  fable,  based 
on  some  other  experience  than  that  of  any 
editor  of  this  journal." l  This  retraction  did 
not  appear  in  the  Tribune.  It  was  so  severe 
a  rebuke  to  the  writer  and  publisher  of  the 
Crumbs  of  Comfort  that  Greeley  was  urged 
not  to  insist  on  its  publication,  on  the  ground 
that  the  matter  would  be  soonest  forgotten 
if  it  was  simply  dropped.  In  earlier  years 
he  would  have  asserted  his  authority  and  his 
judgment;  now,  crushed  by  his  defeat,  he 
yielded. 

In  the  last  week  of  November  the  country 
was  shocked  to  hear  that  Horace  Greeley  was 
critically  ill,  and  he  died  at  6.50  p.  M.  on  No 
vember  29,  1872.  His  wife  had  been  taken  to 
Chappaqua,  a  helpless  invalid,  a  short  time 
before  the  date  of  the  election,  and  he  had 
watched  by  her  bedside  day  and  night.  The 
Tribune  in  announcing  his  death  said:  "His 
incessant  watch  around  the  dying  pillow  of 
his  wife  had  well-nigh  destroyed  the  power 
of  sleep.  Symptoms  of  extreme  nervous 
prostration  gradually  became  apparent.  His 
appetite  was  gone.  The  stomach  rejected 
food.  The  free  use  of  his  faculties  was  dis- 


1  A  facsimile  of  this  paragraph  was  printed  in  the  New 
York  Boycotter  in  November,  1884. 

256 


Statue  in  Greeley  Square. 


His  Death 

turbed,  and  he  sank  with  a  rapidity  that,  even 
to  those  who  watched  him  closest,  seemed 
startling."  In  one  of  Greeley's  Letters  to 
a  Lady  Friend  (published  in  1893),  he  wrote, 
under  date  of  November  8,  1872,  "As  to  my 
wife's  death,  I  do  not  count  it.  Her  suffer 
ings  since  she  returned  to  me  were  so  terrible 
that  I  rather  felt  relieved  when  she  peace 
fully  slept  the  long  sleep.  .  .  .  Nor  do  I  care 
for  defeat,  however  crushing.  I  dread  only 
the  malignity  with  which  I  am  hounded,  and 
the  possibility  that  it  may  ruin  the  Tribune. 
My  enemies  mean  to  kill  that;  if  they  would 
kill  me  instead  I  would  thank  them  lovingly. 
And  so  many  of  my  old  friends  hate  me  for 
what  I  have  done  that  life  seems  hard  to 
bear." 

His  own  words  tell  the  story  of  his  death. 
"Mr.  Greeley,"  said  Dr.  Cuyler  in  his  me 
morial  sermon,  "died  of  a  broken  heart."  He 
had  seen  the  realization  of  a  great  ambition 
within  his  reach,  and  had  been  disappointed. 
Had  he  been  elected,  the  campaign  criticisms 
of  old  friends  who  had  not  followed  him  in  his 
departure  from  the  Kepublican  ranks  would 
have  been  forgotten  in  the  mapping  out  of 
the  policy  to  which  he  would  have  devoted 
himself,  and  his  paper  would  have  had  a  new 
status  as  the  organ  of  the  Federal  admin- 
is  257 


Horace  Greeley 


istration.  But,  cast  down  by  his  defeat — a 
rejected  leader — the  personal  criticisms  were 
killing,  and  it  was  only  natural  that  he,  with 
others,  should  fear  for  the  future  of  the 
journal  of  his  creation,  which,  he  might  sup 
pose,  must  now  look  to  a  new  constituency  for 
support. 

But  in  his  death  all  the  animosities  of  the 
recent  campaign  were  forgotten.  New  York 
city  realized  that  it  had  lost  its  citizen  whose 
renown  was  widest,  and  whose  fame  was 
most  intimately  associated  with  the  metrop 
olis,  and  the  whole  nation,  through  press  and 
pulpit,  paid  tribute  to  his  personal  honesty 
and  the  purity  of  his  aims.  The  body  lay  in 
state  for  a  day  in  the  City  Hall,  where  it  was 
viewed  by  more  than  fifty  thousand  persons, 
and  among  the  attendants  at  the  funeral  were 
the  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  Chief  Justice  Chase,  and  lead 
ing  United  States  Senators.  The  burial  took 
place  in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn. 
The  printers  of  the  United  States  began  at 
once  a  movement  to  erect  over  his  grave  a 
bust  of  the  veteran  editor  made  of  melted 
newspaper  type,  and  such  a  bust,  designed 
by  Charles  Calverly,  was  unveiled  there  on 
December  4,  1876.  The  Common  Council  of 
the  city,  as  their  tribute,  voted  to  name  the 
258 


His  Death 

little  triangle  at  Broadway  and  Thirty-third 
Street  "Greeley  Square,"  and  there  a  Greeley 
statue,  by  Alexander  Doyle,  was  unveiled  by 
the  "Horace  Greeley  Statue  Committee  "  on 
May  30,  1894. 


259 


INDEX 


ABO 
A  BOLITIONISTS,  defined,  124  ; 

•PL  ultra  views  of,  125-127 ;  Gree 
ley  on,  128,  129, 135, 136,  156,  178. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  candi 
date  before  the  Liberal  Republi 
can  Convention,  235. 

Adams-Jackson  campaign,  16. 

American  Laborer  (magazine),  115. 

BANKING,  Greeley  on,  In  New 
Yorker,  35-38. 

Banks  speakership  contest,  166. 

Bates,  Edward,  Greeley's  candi 
date  for  presidential  nomination, 
179. 

Beggars,  Greeley's  experience 
with,  106-108. 

Benjamin,  Park,  work  on  New 
Yorker,  29  ;  advice  to  Greeley,  67. 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  offer  to 
Greeley,  26  ;  Greeley  on,  67. 

Blaine,  J.  G.,  motion  for  amnesty, 
220. 

Blunt,  Joseph,  115. 

Brisbane,  Albert,  Greeley's  sup 
port  of,  79-84. 

Brook  Farm,  81. 

Brown,  B.  Gratz,  leader  in  Liberal 
Republican  movement,  227,  228  ; 
candidate  for  presidential  nomi 
nation,  235 ;  withdrawal  in  favor 
of  Greeley,  241-243. 

Brown,  John,  raid,  168. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  200,  248. 


CUR 

/^ALHOUN,  John  C.,  for  Texas 

v  annexation,  142;  Greeley's 
reply  to,  154. 

California  statehood  question,  156- 
160. 

Carpetbagger  scandals,  216,  226. 

Cass,  presidential  candidate,  151. 

Chappaqua  farm,  92. 

Clark,  Lewis  Gay  lord,  on  Greeley, 
46  note. 

— ,  Myron  H.,  candidate  for  Gov 
ernor,  173. 

Clay,  Henry,  Weed's  opposition  to, 
in  1839,  45  ;  Greeley's  love  of,  46, 
119 ;  tariff  views,  110-113  ;  presi 
dential  campaign  of  1844,  119, 
120;  Greeley's  choice  in  1848, 
148  ;  defended  as  a  slaveholder, 
126,  144,  145 ;  on  Texas  annexa 
tion,  142;  Compromise  of  1850, 
151-163. 

Cochran,  John,  nominated  for 
Vice-President,  199. 

Coggeshall,  James,  loan  to  Gree 
ley,  59. 

Compromise  of  1850, 151-163. 

Congdon,  C.  T.,  72. 

Constitutionalist,  Greeley's  work 
for,  26. 

Cooper  libel  suits,  11,  68. 

Crandall,  Miss,  opposition  to  her 
plan  for  negro  education, 
132. 

Curtis,  George  William,  72. 


261 


Horace  Greeley 


DAL 

~T~\  ALL  AS,  vote  on  tariff,  121. 

**•'    Dana,  Charles  A.,  72,  82, 105. 

Davis,  Judge  David,  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination,  235. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  Greeley  on,  218, 
220-222. 

Depew,  C.  M.,  anecdote  of  Greeley, 
107. 

De  Tocqueville  on  early  American 
newspapers,  27. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  in  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  contest,  163-165  ; 
Greeley  favors  for  Senator,  178. 

Dred  Scott  decision,  168. 

TmVENING  Post,  111,  154  note. 
-L^    Express  newsgathering,  73- 
76. 

T^ARMING,  Greeley  on,  91-93. 

-*-^  Fillmore  signs  compromise 
bills,  160. 

Finances,  Federal  and  State,  Gree 
ley  on,  in  the  New  Yorker,  35-38. 

Fourierism,  Greeley's  belief  in,  79- 
84  ;  later  views,  85  ;  Fourier  As 
sociation  formed,  81. 

Foxes'  stances,  90. 

Fremont  campaign  of  1856,  167; 
nominated  for  President  in  1864, 
199. 

Frye,  W.  H.,  72, 106. 

Fugitive  slaves,  144  ;  compromise 
act,  160-163. 

Fuller,  Margaret,  72,  82 ;  member 
of  Greeley's  family,  88 ;  contri 
butions  to  the  Tribune,  88,  89. 

/H  ARRISON,     William     Lloyd, 

^T  abolition  views,  126, 127  ;  on 
Greeley,  171. 

Gay,  Sidney  Howard,  72, 187,  210. 

Greeley,  Horace,  landing  in  New 
York  city,  2,  20 ;  early  farm  ex 
perience,  3-5  ;  his  mother,  3, 10 ; 
education,  6-8 ;  precocity,  7 ; 


GRE 

views  of  college  education,  8 ; 
attraction  to  the  printer's  trade, 
9 ;  personal  appearance,  11,  12, 
19,  22  ;  first  newspaper  writing, 
13  ;  views  on  journalism,  15  ;  in 
terest  in  politics,  16;  a  protection 
ist  when  a  boy,  16  ;  amusements, 
17  ;  non-user  of  intoxicants  and 
tobacco,  18  ;  employment  in  New 
York  State  and  Pennsylvania,  19; 
first  experiences  in  New  York 
city,  21-24 ;  partnership  with 
Story,  24-26 ;  offer  by  Bennett, 
26  ;  starts  New  Yorker,  27 ;  his 
work  on,  29  ;  idea  of  newspaper 
work,  30 ;  a  poet,  32 ;  editorial 
views  in  the  New  Yorker,  33-37  ; 
on  "  clean "  journalism,  34,  66  ; 
State  and  Federal  finances,  35- 
38  ;  financial  straits,  38,  39  ;  first 
meeting  with  Weed,  42  ;  the  two 
men  contrasted,  44-46  ;  edits  the 
Jeffersonian,  47-49 ;  work  for  the 
Whig  (newspaper),  47 ;  on  State 
committee,  48 ;  edits  the  Log 
Cabin,  50-52 ;  its  business  man 
agement,  52,  54  ;  last  of  the  New 
Yorker,  54,  55  ;  on  the  civil  serv 
ice,  51 ;  absent-mindedness,  54  ; 
on  the  failure  of  the  New  Yorker, 
55 ;  estimate  of  New  York  Trib 
une,  56  ;  equipment  for  editing, 
56 ;  contributor  to  Madisonian, 
57 ;  on  the  country  press,  58  ; 
plan  of  the  Tribune,  58,  60  ;  Har 
rison's  death,  60;  birth  and  early 
struggles  of  the  Tribune,  61  ; 
partnership  with  McElrath,  62 ; 
on  Henry  J.  Raymond,  64  ;  labor 
on  the  Tribune,  65,  69 ;  views  of 
the  stage,  65  ;  use  of  epithets,  67, 
154  note  ;  report  of  Cooper  libel 
suit,  68  ;  newspaper  versatility, 
71 ;  associates,  72 ;  value  of  his 
"  isms "  to  the  Tribune,  76  ;  his 
view  of  independent  thinking, 


262 


Index 


GRE 

76-78, 83, 146 ;  refusal  to  be  guided 
by  Weed,  78;  early  sympathy 
with  socialism,  79 ;  support  of 
Brisbane's  Fourierism,  79-84 ; 
director  of  North  American 
Phalanx,  81 ;  discussion  with 
Raymond,  84;  later  views  ou 
socialism,  84-86 ;  acceptance  of 
Graham's  dietetic  doctrine,  86 
residence  on  the  East  River,  88 
Margaret  Fuller's  views,  88,  89 
opinion  of  spiritualism,  89-91 
views  on  f  arming,  91-93 ;  at 
Chappaqua,  92  ;  sympathy  with 
Ireland  and  Hungary,  93 ;  as 
counselor-at-large,  94 ;  his  lec 
tures,  95-97  ;  member  of  Con 
gress,  98-103,  151 ;  visits  to  Lon 
don  and  Paris,  104  ;  how  he  "ed 
ited"  the  Tribune,  105;  letters 
to  Dana,  105,  106;  experience 
with  beggars,  106-108  ;  editorial- 
room  pictures,  108, 109 ;  advocate 
of  a  protective  tariff,  110-122; 
views  of  President  Tyler,  113, 
114  ;  early  prominence  as  a  pro 
tection  advocate,  115  ;  his  tariff 
principles,  116-118 ;  support  of 
Clay  in  1844, 119, 120 ;  plague  of 
boils,  120;  Clay  his  choice  in 
1848, 122,  148 ;  part  in  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery,  123  ;  party  influ 
ence  over,  125,  129 ;  his  idea  of 
conservatism,  126 ;  defense  of 
Clay  as  a  slaveholder,  126,  144, 
145  ;  opinions  of  the  Abolition 
ists,  128,  129,  135,  136,  143,  156, 
178;  the  Tribune's  influence  in 
the  slavery  contest,  133 ;  early 
views  on  slavery,  134-138  ;  on  the 
murder  of  Lovejoy,  136 ;  on 
Texas  annexation,  137-148  ;  list 
less  support  of  Taylor,  148-151; 
defiance  of  New  York  "  business 
interests,"  149-151,  161,  162 ;  op 
position  to  slavery  in  Congress, 


ORE 

151 ;  Compromise  of  1850,  151- 
163  ;  reply  to  Calhoun,  154  ;  on 
Webster's  7th  of  March  speech, 

158  ;  abandons  Wilmot  proviso, 

159  ;  on  fugitive  slave  law,  161- 
163  ;  favors  Scott's  nomination, 
163  ;   on  Kansas- Nebraska  con 
test,    163,   165;    early    attitude 
toward   Republican  party,  166, 
178 ;   attack  by  Rust,  166 ;   on 
Fremont's    defeat,    167  ;    Dred 
Scott  decision,  168 ;  Lecompton 
contest,  168;  John  Brown  raid, 
168 ;    on  office-holding  editors, 
171, 172, 175  ;  desire  for  guberna 
torial  nomination,  172,  173,  176 ; 
advocacy  of    prohibition,   172 ; 
complaint  to  Seward,  173  ;  letter 
dissolving  the  "  firm  of  Seward, 
Weed,  and  Greeley,"  174-177;  fa 
vors  Douglas  for  Senator,  178; 
delegate  to  National  Republican 
Convention  of  1860,  179 ;  prefer 
ence  for  Bates,  179 ;  reason  for 
opposing  Seward's  nomination, 
179,  183 ;  Raymond's  letter,  180- 
182 ;  defeated  for  United  States 
Senator,  State  Comptroller,  and 
Congress,  182, 183  ;  not  a  candi 
date   for  office  under  Lincoln, 
184  ;  justifies  the  right  to  secede, 
184-187;     "Forward    to    Rich 
mond"  cry,  188,  189;  letter  to 
Lincoln    after    Bull    Run,    190; 
efforts   for   foreign   mediation, 
193-196  ;  Prayer  of  Twenty  Mil 
lions,  196-198  ;  opposition  to  Lin 
coln's     renomination,     199-201 ; 
proposed  withdrawal  of  Lincoln's 
name,  201 ;   a  faultfinder,  202  ; 
Niagara  Falls  negotiations,  203- 
208;   letter  to  Lincoln,  208;   a 
suppressed  editorial,  210,   211 ; 
final  view  of  Lincoln,  212,  213 ; 
for  universal  amnesty  and  im 
partial    suffrage,    217-226;    de- 


263 


Horace  Greeley 


GRE 

stroys   his   chance  for  United 
States  Senator,  218  ;  on  Jefferson 
Davis,  218,  220-222  ;  on  President 
Johnson's  course,  219  ;  action  of 
Union  League   Club,   221,  222 
address  in  Richmond,  223-225 
trip  to  Texas,  225  ;  failure  as  a 
prophet,  225 ;  signs  letter  in  fa 
vor  of  Liberal  movement,  2 
candidate  before  the  Liberal  Re 
publican    Convention,    235-243 
nominated  for  President,   244 
acceptance  of  tariff  plank,  246 
withdrawal  from  Tribune,  246 
speech-making  tour,  250  ;  his  de 
feat  and  its  causes,  251-253 ;  re 
sumes  Tribune  editorship,  253 
Crumbs   of  Comfort   editorial, 
254-256 ;  his  death  and  its  cause, 
bust  and  statue,  258, 


Greeley,  Mrs.  Horace,  her  hus 
band's  first  acquaintance  with, 
87 ;  a  Grahamite,  87;  admirer  of 
Margaret  Fuller,  88  ;  acceptance 
of  spiritualism,  90  ;  requirements 
at  Chappaqua,  93 ;  her  death, 
256,  257. 

— ,  Zacheus,  2-5, 10. 

Godkin,  E.  L.,  on  Greeley 's  nomi 
nation,  236,  247. 

Godwin,  Parke,  83, 116. 

Graham,  Sylvester,  dietetic  doc 
trine,  86. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  causes  of  Republican 
opposition  to,  214 ;  sides  with 
Missouri  radicals,  228. 

Griswold,  R.  W.,  work  on  New 
Yorker,  29. 


HARRISON,  campaign  of  1840, 
49-52  ;  death  of,  as  affecting 
the  Tribune,  60. 
Hay,  John,  messenger  to  Greeley, 

205,207. 
Hildreth,  the  historian,  72. 

264 


LIN 

Hoffman,   C.  H.,   work  on  New 

Yorker,  29. 
Howe,  James,  24. 
Hungary,     Greeley's     sympathy 

with,  93. 

IRELAND,  Greeley's  sympathy 
with,  93. 

TACKSON-Adams  campaign,  16. 

*J  Jeffersonian  (newspaper),  42, 
43,  47-49. 

Jewett,  W.  C.,  part  in  Niagara 
Falls  negotiations.  203-208. 

"Jim  Crow"  cars  in  Massachu 
setts,  131. 

Johnson,  President  Andrew,  Gree 
ley  on,  219. 

Jones,  George,  13. 

Journalism,  the  best  school,  14; 
country,  15,  58 ;  office-holding 
editors,  171, 172. 

KANSAS  -  Nebraska    question, 
163-165. 
Kuklux,  Greeley  on,  226. 


T  ECTURES,    Greeley's,   95-97 ; 

•M    early  lecture  field,  95. 

Liberal  Republican  movement, 
origin  of,  226-229;  Sumner's  part, 
230-232  ;  how  tariff  question  in 
volved,  232-234 ;  Cincinnati  con 
vention,  234-244  ;  platform,  239  ; 
balloting,  242-244 ;  Greeley's 
nomination,  244  ;  early  dissolu 
tion  of  the  movement,  246,  247. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  Greeley's  pref 
erence  for  Douglas,  178 ;  caution 
to  Greeley,  186  ;  Greeley's  letter 
to,  after  Bull  Run,  190-192;  reply 
to  Greeley's  Prayer  of  Twenty 
Millions,  197;  Greeley's  opposi 
tion  to  his  renomination,  199-202 ; 
part  in  Niagara  Falls  negotia 
tion,  203-208 ;  suppressed  edito- 


Index 


LOQ 

rial  on,  210 ;  Greeley's  final  view 
of,  212,  213. 

Log  Cabin  (newspaper),  how  start 
ed,  50  ;  its  character,  50-52  ;  big 
circulation,  52. 

Lottery  ticket  selling,  26. 

Lovejoy,  E.  P.,  murder  of,  138. 

— ,  Owen,  on  emancipation  procla 
mation,  198  note. 

"JV/TADISONIAN  (newspaper),  In- 

-***•    vitation  to  Greeley,  57. 

McElrath,  T.,  partner  in  the  Tri 
bune,  62. 

Mercier,  Greeley's  approach  to, 
193. 

Mileage  abuse,  Greeley's  attack 
on,  99-103. 

Missouri  compromise,  127. 

Missouri,  Liberal  Republican  move 
ment  in,  226-230. 

Morning  Post,  25. 

"VTEBRASKA  question,  163-165. 

-*-^  Negro  education,  Northern 
opposition  to,  132. 

Newspapers,  early,  in  the  United 
States,  27;  New  York  city  in 
1842,  58  ;  Greeley  on  the  "  Satan 
ic  press,"  66. 

New  York  city  in  1830,  1 ;  literary 
tastes  in  1828,  28  ;  bank  suspen 
sions  hi  1837,  37  ;  newspapers  in 
1842,  58. 

New  Yorker  started,  27;  character 
of,  30-34 ;  topics  discussed,  35-38  ; 
a  financial  failure,  38,  39 ;  last 
days,  54,  55  ;  on  slavery  and  the 
Abolitionists,  134-136;  on  Love- 
joy's  murder,  136  ;  on  Texas  an 
nexation,  143. 

Niagara  Falls  peace  negotiations, 
203-208. 

Northern  Spectator,  Greeley's  em 
ployment  on,  10-16, 19. 

Noyes's  Academy,  attack  on,  132. 


"DAPER  money,  laborers'  oppo- 
-*-      sition  to,  36  note. 
Phalanx,  North  American,  81, 82. 
Polk,  J.  K.,  election  of,  120  ;  letter 

to  Kane,  121. 
Porter,  W.  T.,  24. 

Prayer  of  Twenty  Millions,  196-198. 
Prohibition,  Greeley's  advocacy  of, 

172. 

/~\UINCY,  Edmund,  72. 

"DAYMOND,  Henry  J.,  concern- 

J-*  ing  the  New  Yorker,  29; 
Greeley's  assistant,  64;  discus 
sion  on  Fourierism,  84  ;  founds 
New  York  Times,  94;  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  173;  letter  on  Greeley's 
opposition  to  Se ward's  nomina 
tion,  180-182 ;  on  Greeley's  media 
tion  schemes,  195,  196;  reports 
Republican  platform,  204. 

Redfleld,  J.  S.,  24. 

Republican  party,  founding  of, 
166 ;  Greeley's  attitude  toward, 
166. 

Ripley,  George,  72,  83. 

SCOTT,  Gen.  W.,  Tribune  favors 
his  nomination,  163. 

Schurz,  Carl,  part  in  Liberal  move 
ment  in  Missouri,  227,  228,  230 ; 
chairman  Liberal  national  con 
vention,  241. 

Secession,  the  right  of,  184. 

Seward,  William  H.,  Greeley's  com 
plaint  to,  173;  dissolution  of 
"firm  of  Seward,  Weed,  and 
Greeley,"  174-176;  letter  to 
Weed,  177;  Greeley's  objection 
to  his  nomination,  179 ;  Secretary 
of  State,  184 ;  reply  to  Mercier, 
193-195;  on  Greeley's  negotia 
tions,  196. 

Shepard,  H.  D.'s,  Morning  Post,  25. 


265 


Horace  Greeley 


SLA 

Slavery,  Greeley's  part  in  its  abo 
lition,  123 ;  Abolitionists  defined, 
124;  their  erratic  views,  125; 
early  antislavery  societies,  130 ; 
Northern  attitude,  128-136  ;  the 
Tribune's  influence  as  an  oppo 
nent  of  slavery,  133  ;  Lovejoy's 
murder,  136  ;  Texas  annexation, 
137-148 ;  Supreme  Court  decision, 
144 ;  Greeley 's  rebukes  of  New 
York  "business  interests,"  149, 
1G1 ;  Greeley's  attitude  in  Con 
gress,  151 ;  Compromise  of  1850, 
152-163 ;  conference  of  Southern 
Congressmen,  154-156 ;  talk  of 
disunion,  156, 162 ;  Dred  Scott  de 
cision,  168 ;  John  Brown  raid, 
168;  emancipation  proclamation, 
196-198. 

Socialism,  Greeley's  views,  79-86. 

Spirit  of  the  Times  (newspaper),  24. 

Spiritualism,  Greeley's  views  on, 
89-91. 

Stage,  Greeley 's  views  on,  65. 

Story,  Francis,  24. 

Sumner,  Charles,  quarrel  with 
Grant,  230-232. 

Sun  (newspaper),  Tribune  "  war  " 
with,  63. 

Sylvania  enterprise,  82. 

Sylvester,  S.  J.,  24. 

rriARIFF,  Greeley's  views  on,  110- 
•*-  122 ;  compromise  of  1833, 110- 
113;  Tyler's  position,  113,  114; 
the  leading  political  issue,  114 ; 
Greeley 's  early  advocacy  of  pro 
tection,  115-118 ;  Clay  campaign 
of  1844, 119, 120  ;  Folk's  position, 
121 ;  R.  J.  Walker's  views,  121 ; 
tariff  vs.  slavery,  161 ;  part  in  the 
Liberal  Republican  campaign  of 
1372,232-234 ;  Liberal  Republican 
plank,  240 ;  Greeley 's  acceptance 
of  it,  246. 
Taylor,  Bayard,  72, 96. 


TRI 

Taylor,  Gen.  Z.,  Greeley 's  listless 
support  of,  148-151 ;  on.admission 
of  California,  157. 

Temperance,  Greeley's  views,  18, 
172. 

Texas  annexation,  137-148. 

Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  116. 

Times,  New  York,  started,  94. 

Tribune,  New  York,  Greeley 's  esti 
mate  of,  56  ;  his  plan  of,  58-60  ; 
capital  to  start  with,  59 ;  its  birth 
and  early  struggles,  61 ;  weekly 
and  semi  editions  begun,  62,  63  ; 
price,  63  ;  war  with  the  Sun,  63  ; 
its  news  character,  65-457 ;  growth 
of  subscriptions  and  advertise 
ments,  69,  70 ;  source  of  its  influ 
ence,  71  ;  associate  editors,  72 
express  news-gathering,  73-76 
value  of  Greeley's  "isms,"  76 
Brisbane's  contributions,  80 
support  of  Association  scheme, 
81 ;  women's  suffrage,  89  ;  on 
spiritualism,  90,  91 ;  its  agricul 
tural  department,  91  ;  exposure 
of  mileage  abuse,  100  ;  Greeley's 
thorough  editing,  103 ;  on  Tyler's 
tariff  bill  veto,  114  ;  Clay  edition, 
119 ;  part  in  the  antislavery  con 
test,  123  ;  on  the  Abolitionists, 
129, 156  ;  on  fugitive  slaves,  144  ; 
position  on  slavery  question 
stated,  145,  147;  on  Texas  an 
nexation,  145-148 ;  listless  sup 
port  of  Taylor,  148,  149, 151  ;  re 
buke  of  New  York  "  business  in 
terests,"  149,  161  ;  on  Van  Buren- 
Adams  ticket,  151 ;  on  campaign 
of  1850,  157  ;  on  Webster's  7th 
of  March  speech,  158  ;  on  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  question,  163-165 ; 
Virginia  indictment  of,  167 ;  on 
Dred  Scott  decision  and  John 
Brown's  raid,  168  ;  advocacy  of 
the  Maine  law,  172 ;  service  to 
Seward,  174  ;  on  the  right  to  se- 


266 


Index 


TYL 

cede,  184-187 ;  office  attacked  by 
a  mob,  187 ;  "Forward  to  Rich 
mond  "  cry,  188 ;  hopes  for 
Grant's  administration,  214  ; 
causes  of  its  later  hostility,  215  ; 
on  amnesty,  217  ;  reports  and 
comments  during  the  Liberal 
Republican  convention,  237-239 ; 
Greeley's  withdrawal  from,  246  ; 
editorials  during  Liberal  cam 
paign,  248,  249  ;  Greeley's  return 
to,  253  ;  Crumbs  of  Comfort  edi 
torial,  254-256;  Greeley's  fear 
for,  257. 

Tyler,  President  John,  tariff  recom 
mendations,  113 ;  Tribune's  sup 
port  of,  113  ;  Greeley's  view  of, 
113, 114, 146  ;  veto  of  tariff  bill, 
114 ;  on  Texas  annexation,  140- 
142. 

TTNION  League  Club,  proposed 
*-'     action  against  Greeley,  221, 

222. 

Universal  amnesty,  217. 
Upshur,  A.  P.,  Secretary  of  State, 

a  Texas  annexatiouist,  141. 


"YTALLANDIGHAM,  Greeley's 
»  reported  correspondence 
with,  195. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  Greeley's 
thrust  at,  51 ;  tariff  views,  111 ; 
Free  Soil  candidate,  127;  on 
Texas  question,  140,  142,  143; 
Van  Buren- Adams  ticket,  151. 


YOU 

TTTALKER,  R.  J.,  tariff  views, 
W  121. 

Webb,  James  Watson,  on  Greeley's 
dress,  11. 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  Texas  ques 
tion,  138,  139,  141  ;  7th  of  March 
speech,  153-158. 

Weed,  Thurlow,  founding  of  the 
Albany  Journal,  40 ;  first  meet- 
ing  with  Greeley,  42  ;  the  Jeffer- 
sonian,  43 ;  Weed  and  Greeley 
contrasted,  44,  46  ;  Clay's  defeat 
in  1837, 45  ;  discovery  of  Greeley, 
46 ;  Greeley's  independence  of, 
78 ;  on  Greeley's  proposed  nomi 
nation  for  Governor,  172  ;  Gree 
ley's  complaints  to  Seward,  173- 
176  ;  Seward's  letter  to,  177 ;  on 
Greeley's  letter  to  Seward,  182 ; 
defeats  Greeley's  chances  for 
office,  182. 

Whig  (daily  newspaper),  47. 

—  party,  1836  to  1840,  41-52  ;  final 
defeat  of,  163. 

White,  Horace,  on  New  York  bank 
ing  laws,  35  ;  reports  Liberal  Re 
publican  platform,  239. 

Wilmot  proviso,  Greeley  on,  158, 
159. 

Wilson,  Henry,  on  Greeley,  166, 187. 

Winchester,  Jonas,  26. 

Women's  suffrage,  Greeley  on,  89. 

Wood,  Fernando,  proposed  seces 
sion  of  New  York  city,  185. 


Y 


OUNG,     John     Russell,     on 
Grant's  administration,  214. 


(1) 


THE  EKD 


267 


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Tacoma  Ledger. 

"  This  book  would  be  a  severe  test  of  the  reader's  credulity 
were  the  things  related  not  all  matters  of  actual  history."— Ameri 
can  Review  of  Reviews. 

"  It  reads  like  a  whole  bunch  of  romances  and  melodrama  and 
comedies  and  tragedies  rolled  into  one.  A  human  document  of 
a  rare  kind." — Providence  News. 

"  It  is  the  story  of  a  man  absolutely  fearless  of  consequences, 
of  high  ideals,  and  a  genius  for  taking  hazards  of  new  fortunes." 
— New  York  Christian  Work. 

D.     APPLETON    AND     COMPANY,     NEW    YORK. 


"THE  FIRST  WOMAN  OF  FRANCE." 

The  Romance  of  My  Childhood  and  Youth. 

By  Madame  EDMOND  ADAM  (Juliette  Laraber).  Photo 
gravure  portrait.  i2mo.  Cloth,  gilt  top,  $1.40  net. 

"  The  book  is  really  a  romance  of  French  history  for  a  century. 
It  begins  with  the  extraordinary  career  of  Mile.  Lamber's  grand 
mother,  who  had  a  profound  influence  upon  her  early  life,  and 
whose  love  story  is  as  fine  as  any  that  novelist  ever  imagined. 
And  as  to  herself,  it  is  such  a  revelation  of  development  of  char 
acter  and  conduct  as  nobody  but  a  Frenchwoman  could  possibly 
write."—  The  New  York  World. 

"A  curious  and  romantic  story  of  a  curious  and  romantic 
French  family,  related  with  sympathetic  candor." — Philadelphia 
Public  Ledger. 

"  Such  a  clear,  precise  style  that  the  resulting  picture  in  our 
minds  is  as  distinct  as  it  is  full  of  color  and  vividness." — The 
New  York  Outlook. 

"  She  has  made  clear  the  conflicting  emotions  that  helped  to 
form  her  character  and  shape  her  ambitions." — New  York  Times 
Saturday  Review. 

"  Apart  from  its  vivacity  and  dramatic  qualities,  the  book  is 
extraordinarily  interesting  as  showing,  through  a  personal  medium, 
the  forces  and  dreams  that  met  together  in  France  in  those  days 
for  the  creation  of  the  new  socialism." — New  York  Independent. 

"  Nothing  more  pathetic,  more  unlike  the  ordinary,  and  more 
picturesque  can  be  found  in  biography." — Chicago  Record-Herald. 

"  A  delightful  picture  of  French  family  life." — The  Booklovers 
Bulletin. 

"This  nrarvelous  autobiography." — Cleveland  Leader. 

"  Witty,  full  of  life,  and  brilliant." — Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

"  She  has  told  the  story  as  only  a  brilliant  Frenchwoman  can." 
— Baltimore  Herald. 

D.     APPLETON    AND     COMPANY,     NEW     YORK. 


THIS    BOOK    IS    DUE   ON    THE    LAST    DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN  THIS  BOOK 
ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY  WILL  INCREASE  TO 
50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH  DAY  AND  TO  $T.OO  ON  THE 
SEVENTH  DAY  OVERDUE. 


Book  Slip-10m-8,'58(5 


166893 


Linn,  W.A. 

Horace  Greeley. 


Call  Number: 


G8 
L7 


Lin 


.  S 


L  1 


166893 


